Euro zone: Are the benefits of zero or negative interest rates outweighed by their costs?
Short-term and long-term interest rates are zero or negative in the euro zone, for a number of reasons (the absence of inflation and the expansionary monetary policy, excess savings, strong demand for risk-free bonds). The benefit of zero or negative interest rates is that they ensure the solvency of all economic agents (governments, households, companies), even when they are overindebted, thereby preventing a recession. But is the cost of maintaining this across-the-board solvency - real estate bubbles, the weakening of banks, hardship for savers, switch of savings into banknotes and sight deposits - not too high? Zero or negative interest rates are not a free lunch that keep’s everyone solven t without cost.