Bank of Japan shocks markets by adopting negative interest rates

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Not, as far as I know, in London, but isnsome other European countries

(certainly the central Bank of England rate is still positive, though at its historic low).

Directly, it's not a shift of wealth to the rich - this is telling the rich (ie financial institutions) that they'll have to pay to store money in the safety of the central bank. In reaction, those banks may then lower the rates they pay their own depositors, but they could have tried that before - they just might have found people took their money out of that bank. The idea is to encourage people to 'invest' their money in some scheme that doesn't involve it just sitting overnight in a bank.