The Bilderberg conference ended less than a week ago and now the European Central Bank (ECB) has set negative interest rates on deposits (0.1%). Here are a few articles on it:
- Draghi Takes ECB Deposit Rate Negative in Historic Move
- Bitcoin Price Turns Upwards with European Banking Negative Interest
- ECB imposes negative interest rate
- European Central Bank Institutes Negative Interest Rate
The 2014 Bilderberg conference ended on June 1st. The ECB was represented there by Benoît Coeuré, a member of the Executive Board of the ECB.
Coincidence? Well, for the negative interest rates to be set up, I’d imagine it would take them longer than 1 week. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had prepared it, taken it to Bilderberg and talked it over there to mitigate the sticker shock for keeping savings in the bank.
The amount of deposits by EU banks at the ECB is around EUR 29 billion (as pointed out by the Economic Policy Journal – link #4 above) while the Fed has trillions (#4).
So the question is whether or not this is simply a small, dry-run of negative interest rates on deposits to see if it will run under the radar well enough to implement on a larger scale, e.g. at the Fed or at commercial banks. We’ll see.
But either way, conspiracy or not, or dry-run or not, this is a seismic shift in the methodology and manner of flow of money through the banking system.
The practical side of this is that it now costs money to save money. i.e. It’s like having a paper cup with a hole in the bottom; if you’re thirsty, you’d better drink fast. Or in other words, the banksters are trying to destroy your ability to save.
Did you still need a reason to buy bitcoins? This is it. Get some of your money into bitcoins, because that is what the banksters can’t steal.
And that, kids, is what we call watching history in the making… (Not all history is good…)
There are other reasons for “paying” negative interest.
Many times it’s because the government believes there is too much currency being left idle in passive savings accounts or interest-bearing checking accounts. So in order to encourage more spending (i.e. economic stimulus) or more investment in securities such as corporate/government bonds, the interest rate will be “adjusted” – or “manipulated” depending on your point of view – o encourage people to take money out of passive savings accounts, and either spend a little more or find something else to invest it in.
Too much “idle” money can hurt an economy. And in extreme cases, can keep enough money out of circulation that a government is forced to issue more, thereby leading to the risk of inflation.
Odd as it may seem, too much money being saved is not a always good thing for an economy. More often than not, it’s not. Like most things in economics, it’s a balancing act. And even the level of savings has it’s sweet spot in the bigger picture. Interest rates are just another tool employed to help tilt things towards that sweet spot.
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