Growth Killer

For years I have argued that ultra-low interest rates act more as an economic sedative than a stimulant. This idea has elicited laughter from the economic establishment. But it is becoming clearer that rates set by central banks that are far below the levels that free markets would have otherwise determined have dragged the world into the economic mud. The simple proof is currently arising in Europe where negative interest rates are now transforming companies from agents of growth, production, and employment into financial sloths that exist solely to borrow money.

In a September 7 front page article, the Wall Street Journal reported that as of September 5, €706 billion worth of investment-grade European corporate debt, or roughly 30% of the market, according to trading platform Tradeweb, was trading at negative yields, an increase from just 5% in January. These negative yields were the result of intense activism on the part of the European Central Bank (ECB).

the Federal Reserve will ultimately follow the ECB and the BoJ into this bizarre world of negative yields and unlimited financial asset purchases.

But as we go down this road, no one in power seems to consider the possibility that “stimulus” does more harm than good. If central banks weren’t buying bonds, interest rates would surely rise, and risks for business and governments would return. But the real world can produce real results. It has worked that way for millennia. Without guaranteed government money, companies would need to attract real investors. To do that they would need to create real businesses, a process that takes investment, innovation, and efficiency. These are the essential elements that create productivity growth that is the single biggest factor in raising living standards. It’s no accident that productivity growth has all but disappeared in the current age of central bank activism.

So we have a choice, either we continue down the road of negative rates to Fantasy Land, where central banks own all the stocks and bonds and asset prices always rise, but real wages and average living standards always fall, or we take our chances on a different path that leads to reality, however unpleasant the transition may be. I for one would choose the latter, but it looks like I won’t have much company.

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