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Melanchthon:
This is a condition for a typical liquidity trap; hence my proposal for applying a negative return, a charge, on such deposits.
See FT.com | Willem Buiter's Maverecon | Negative interest rates: when are they coming to a central bank near you?
I agree with Greg Mankiw[1] that it is time for central banks to stop pretending that zero is the floor for nominal interest rates.  There is no theoretical or practical reason for not having the Federal Funds target rate and market rates at, say, minus five percent, if that is what your Taylor rule, or whatever heuristic guides your official policy rate, suggests.


En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Dec 1st, 2009 at 04:49:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Indeed, one of Mankiw's students proposed a practical means of enforcing negative interest rates even on those who hold their savings in currency: for a -5% rate just void every other serial number ending in an arbitrary digit for any particular year.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Dec 1st, 2009 at 11:16:54 AM EST
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