Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) was considered “extraordinary” when central bankers rolled that out roughly ten years ago. At that time, people would still have laughed at the idea of negative interest rates. Lenders didn’t pay borrowers and nobody paid their bank to hold their deposits.

So much has changed in the past 10 years. Now negative interest rate policies (NIRP) look set to go viral.

German banks will soon start toeing the European Central Bank line and pass negative rates on to depositors there. Germans who endured zero interest rates and somehow still want a savings account will now have to pay for the “privilege.”

The idea is preposterous, and it is perverse.

People build wealth and hold on to their liberty when there are incentives to save and invest. In just 10 short years, central bankers put an end to those incentives and implemented rewards for consumption, borrowing and spending instead.

Formerly responsible nations, including Germany and the U.S., are accelerating down the road to ruin with debt exploding at all levels. Banking, finance, and government represent an ever-larger share of the economy. And record numbers of people depend on public assistance.

Of course, negative interest rates are but one example of the “contributions” bankers have made to society in recent years.

Continue reading: https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2019/12/23/nirp-gold-silver-001933