Deflation can be particularly dangerous when a financial system is shaky, with household and corporate balance sheets in poor shape and banks undercapitalized and heavily burdened with bad loans.
From Ben Bernanke
No one will lend at a negative interest rate; potential creditors will simply choose to hold cash, which pays zero nominal interest.
I don't know why there aren't more Depression buffs.
The Depression was an incredibly dramatic episode - an era of stock-market crashes, breadlines, bank runs and wild currency speculation, with the storm clouds of war gathering ominously in the background... For my money, few periods are so replete with human interest.
People saw the Depression as a necessary thing - a chance to squeeze out the excesses, get back to Puritan morality. That just made things worse.
Obviously, I haven't succeeded in defusing the political concerns about the Fed.
Our financial system is so complicated and so interactive - so many different markets in different countries and so many sets of rules.
The world has a great deal more to offer than money.
Identity theft is a serious crime that affects millions of Americans each year.
Chairman Greenspan is, of course, a master.
81 perspectives
20 perspectives
19 perspectives
4 perspectives
2 perspectives