[BilLies]

For the last 18 months or so the banks have been giving almost no return on their saving and checking accounts and the short term CDs were even worse.
Those living primarily on their savings, mainly the elderly, are in deep trouble; of course almost no mention on the ABCCbSNBCNN channels

[BilLies]

Gretchen Morgenson is certainly out of the mold for a NY Times reporter. Wonder when she will be moving on.

[cuban leaf]

I don’t blame anyone for this. I just don’t keep any money in the bank. For me it’s bonds and PM’s.

Heck, my sister and her husband are cutting back on expenditures, and they’re worth hundreds of millions. Most of their investments are in things like municipal bonds and other tax-free and relatively risk free stuff. They’re selling one of their boats (A 115 footer with six suites), but keeping the Cesna Citation. They laid off the crew of the boat and the captain was making six figures.

When you have the money they do, you should be able to live off the income your money generates. When rates, etc. drop to the point where you are spending more than you are earning, you cut back. Which is what they are doing.

My wife and I, on our small scale, have done exactly the same thing. Restaurant visits are extremely rare now and paying off every penny of debt (including mortgage) and prepper activities is what it is all about. And we are still having a blast!

The rich are not stupid. That’s how they got rich.

[TheWriterTX]

Kyle Bass from Hayman Capital talked about the Zero Interest Rate trap in his letter to investors entitled "The Cognitive Dissonance of It All."

Salient Capital in Houston has a very concise 3Q Macroeconomic Report that also discusses the wealth elimination taking place under ZIRP.

Long wave contraction, Baby. Long wave contraction!

[ErnBatavia]

For the last 18 months or so

It's been a helluva lot longer than that; I quit working 10 years ago and could have eked by on the 8% my money market was paying....that rate evaporated within a year.

So I did what millions of others have done - put 'pressure on the system' and went on the Social Security tit at the very first opportunity, instead of waiting until age 66 or 67.