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.
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