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proverbialwisdom

(4,959 posts)
Thu Mar 17, 2016, 04:27 PM Mar 2016

Bloomberg News: The Fed Wants to Test How Banks Would Handle Negative Rates

http://www.bloombergview.com/quicktake/negative-interest-rates

Negative Interest Rates
Less Than Zero

By Jana Randow and Simon Kennedy | Updated Mar 10, 2016 10:19 AM EST

Imagine a bank that pays negative interest. Depositors are actually charged to keep their money in an account. Crazy as it sounds, several of Europe’s central banks have cut key interest rates below zero and kept them there for more than a year. Now Japan is trying it, too. For some, it’s a bid to reinvigorate an economy with other options exhausted. Others want to push foreigners to move their money somewhere else. Either way, it’s an unorthodox choice that has distorted financial markets and triggered warnings that the strategy could backfire. If negative interest rates work, however, they may mark the start of a new era for the world’s central banks.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-02/rates-less-than-zero-is-bank-stress-fed-wants-to-test-in-2016

The Fed Wants to Test How Banks Would Handle Negative Rates

by Rich Miller
Feb 2, 2016


As interest rates turn negative around the world, the Federal Reserve is asking banks to consider the possibility of the same happening in the U.S.

In its annual stress test for 2016, the Fed said it will assess the resilience of big banks to a number of possible situations, including one where the rate on the three-month U.S. Treasury bill stays below zero for a prolonged period.

"The severely adverse scenario is characterized by a severe global recession, accompanied by a period of heightened corporate financial stress and negative yields for short-term U.S. Treasury securities," the central bank said in announcing the stress tests last week.

In that particular simulation, the unemployment rate doubles to 10 percent, the same level it reached in the aftermath of the last financial crisis.

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Bloomberg News: The Fed Wants to Test How Banks Would Handle Negative Rates (Original Post) proverbialwisdom Mar 2016 OP
"possible" my ass. dixiegrrrrl Mar 2016 #1

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
1. "possible" my ass.
Thu Mar 17, 2016, 04:52 PM
Mar 2016

Better start educating yourselves about who wins and who loses what in negative interest rate environment.

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