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To: BenLurkin

I’m curious, does anyone know what happens to interest rates in hyperinflation times?

Suppose before the inflation the bank savings rate was 5% per year, and the borrowing rate was 6%. What happens to those numbers?


5 posted on 09/22/2012 7:45:43 AM PDT by Leaning Right
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To: Leaning Right
Traditionally, interest rates are always above the rate of inflation because the expected rate of return on any investment must account for inflation. If you ever find interest rates below the rate of inflation (like right now, for instance), then you know that something is seriously wrong and that someone (like the Fed, for instance) is manipulating interest rates to be artificially low by making money available to banks at near zero interest. The Fed is actually getting to a point where they will offer negative interest rates to banks just like Japan did back in the 90s.

The problem is that the banks don't want to lend money because they don't want to take on the risk of default since that risk is higher than normal in this economy, and the payoff (i.e. rates) so low. Fix the economy, and everything else will fall into place. And the only role the government can play in that is to remove the uncertainty, put a set of favorable rules firmly in place for the next 20 years, and then get their own financial house in order. Every dollar in deficit spending is a dollar of value that is stolen from the future of this country.

11 posted on 09/22/2012 8:05:17 AM PDT by Hoodat ("As for God, His way is perfect" - Psalm 18:30)
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To: Leaning Right

I’m curious, does anyone know what happens to interest rates in hyperinflation times?
********
This wasn’t exactly a case of hyperinflation but back in the Carter era (or rather ‘error’) the daily interest rate on the money market that we had parked money in reached an astonishing 17%. As I recall that was abut the high water mark but for quite a while the rate of return was well into the teens.


12 posted on 09/22/2012 8:10:54 AM PDT by Starboard
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