[Alberta's Child]

Low interest are key to economic growth ...

This is flat-out wrong. Let's go back and look at the top annual GDP growth rates since 1970 and see what the FED discount rate was at those times:

1984: Annual GDP growth 8.4%, FED rate ranged from 8.37% to 9.00%
1973: Annual GDP growth 5.9%, FED rate ranged from 4.77% to 7.50%
1978: GDP 5.6%, FED rate 6.50%-9.50%
1976: GDP 5.4%, FED rate 5.25%-5.79%
1999: GDP 4.9%, FED rate 4.50%-5.00%

Now compare that to the period from 2012-2016. The FED discount rate was 0.75% all the way up to 2015, then rose to 1.00% in 2015 and rose again to 1.25% in 2016. Here are the GDP growth figures for those years:

2012: 2.2%
2013: 1.7%
2014: 2.6%
2015: 2.9%
2016: 1.5%

[central_va]

You do realize that inflation in the 1970's averaged around 8%/yr?

This is joke. Ask anyone who builds houses if they want interest rate to go up. Ask anyone buying a house if they want interest rates to go up. Ask anyone starting a small business in need of a loan if the want interest rates to go up. Ask any investing in new infrastructure/machinery if they want interest rates to go up.

But those are Main Street concerns ans not a worry of the "investor" class.

[MichaelCorleone]

Re: post #71

Very nice how you put the numbers together; really makes your point.