Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "Osmium" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: rationality Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2015 13:22:07 -0600 Lines: 32 Message-ID: References: <20151008.1102.972368snz@twoplaces.co.uk> <1120801214.466107547.130088.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <30aa008c-62a7-4473-8c64-41bdc76b9b90@googlegroups.com> <87k2q6xqh8.fsf@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> <962dnRJE6oMQMqrLnZ2dnUU78UudnZ2d@giganews.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="utf-8"; reply-type=response Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net jLA5EB2qI0BRar4LdfVjRg422iDIio2clzVivL3qI4nZ+vBsXQ Cancel-Lock: sha1:SW9w8iJgPLLO7pClSX9gd0W0nVY= X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:153818 "Andrew Swallow" wrote: > On 02/11/2015 15:13, Osmium wrote: >> I am not convinced they have stopped printing money. Short term >> interest rates have effectively been zero for seven years. The usage of >> money used to have value, now its value is zero. Other things still >> have value:wheat, lumber, cement, textiles. Short term money is the only >> thing that has no value. One way to have this happen would be if the >> supply suddenly became unlimited. I am open to other theories. > > Who gets to pay zero rate interest? > Not me. Credit cards still charge interest. Mortgages still charge > interest. Business loans still charge interest (if the company can get > one). Government bonds pay you a tiny amount of interest (near zero). So I > suspect that only the banks get the zero interest rate. I was talking about people having money available to loan. Like me. Banks are not people. I could go to ten thousand banks with my money and they would all offer me about the same thing, zero. I limited my claim to short term money, thus excluding the house mortgage you mention. Banks seem to have a source of input funds that are free, they mark up the cost and output funds, to businesses as you mention, cost more than zero. There seems to be a secret money faucet that only the banks (and credit card companies?) have access to. I would expect to hear about little old ladies, widows, who expected to live on interest for the rest of their lives but can't. I don't see those stories. Of course they never could, even in the past, if you factor in inflation and taxes. But they *thought* they could. Which was, kind of, the point, or at least *a* point