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The impact of low interest rates is broad and deep. Many Americans rely on interest income from their savings to help cover their cost of living.

Low interest rates are usually attributed to low inflation, weak economic growth and super easy monetary policy. But there's another deep-seated factor that doesn't get much attention: demographics.

It would be helpful if someone would lay out exactly the economic mechanism that gets us from yet lower interest rates to actual economic activity.

Lower interest rates are usually considered good for stocks because they lower the cost of borrowing and make bonds a less attractive alternative investment.

Low interest rates are a big opportunity for investment. But the issue is that this money should go to the real economy, not the financial economy.

The crisis and recession have led to very low interest rates, it is true, but these events have also destroyed jobs, hamstrung economic growth and led to sharp declines in the values of many homes and businesses.

Interest rate cuts have an effect in stimulating an economy by directly or indirectly making someone, somewhere, spend more than they otherwise would. That extra spending increases demand and ensures that we all carry on with work to do, without us having to slash our prices or our wrists.

Interest rates are used to achieve overall economic stability.

Rising interest rates are considered bad for stocks because they raise the cost of doing business and depress corporate earnings and because higher yields make bonds relatively more attractive than stocks to investors.

Marginal tax rates are the lowest they've been in generations, and all we can talk about is tax cuts.