[Alberta's Child]

Low interest rates aren't a cause of an economic malaise. They are an effect of an economic malaise. In an ideal world where a government isn't creating money haphazardly out of thin air, paying interest rates above 0% only make sense if you have some kind of expectation that there will be growth in the economy over the long term. An economy only grows if population and productivity grow, and the U.S. just hasn't seen sufficient growth in these areas to warrant any confidence among investors.

[grania]

Low interest rates aren’t a solution to the problems. If a responsible middle class can’t acquire savings, how is there ever going to be small business formation or an incentive to get out of debt and start saving?