ZIRP Winners and Losers

Boon For Wall Street,
Goose Egg for Savers

Want to place a bet on how long the Federal Reserve's current policy of zero percent interest rates ("ZIRP") continues?

Consider who it helps -- and hurts:

ZIRP Winners:

--U.S. Treasury (debt service kept artificially low)
-- Wall Street (free money -- how nice!)
--Mega-Corp Borrowers (ditto. IBM just borrowed more than $1 billion for . . . 1%!!)
--Home owners (*kind of)

ZIRP Losers:

--Retirees and other savers

My money's on zero percent interest rates . . .

*Historically, cheap mortgages stimulate housing demand. But cheap money can be trumped by other factors, like falling asset prices, high unemployment, etc.