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Well, they've never been at a full match with inflation but banks did use to actually pay interest on savings accounts once upon a time. I think it's reasonabl
by munk-a 5y ago
Well, they've never been at a full match with inflation but banks did use to actually pay interest on savings accounts once upon a time.
I think it's reasonable to allow members of society that want to sit on cash to preserve their quantity to a certain extent in that manner - even if it will fall short of gains expected by inflation.
- ghaff 5y agoThey sort of can. There are CDs, treasuries, money market funds. Interest rates at the moment are pretty awful and I'm pretty much out of all that sort of thing. But they do exist.
- arcticbull 5y agoWell, for one, you didn't really answer any of the questions I posited. But further, you have to consider the flip-side of receiving interest: paying it. Having low-cost access to capital makes businesses more efficient. It also makes your personal life cheaper as the average homeowner ends up on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. A mortgage rate of 2.5% leaves you with way, way, way more free money than the 12% you'd have payed in the 70s. That's true even after factoring in inflation and historic wages.