We were in a deflation spiral though, which would generally mean that the person receiving the loan (i.e. the tenant) would've been paying negative interest rat

We were in a deflation spiral though, which would generally mean that the person receiving the loan (i.e. the tenant) would've been paying negative interest rates. The landlords would've been obligated to make the tenants whole for the 'damages' they received from receiving a loan from the landlords.