Interest rates are low because the Fed has signalled that if the market charges large companies too much to borrow money, they'll just print money and lend it t

Interest rates are low because the Fed has signalled that if the market charges large companies too much to borrow money, they'll just print money and lend it to those companies instead in order to drive interest down to a more acceptable level. Well, that's a bit of a simplification, but it's basically how the Fed's bond-buying program works.