Dollar Zirp: The value of money

Zero is a hard number to understand. In multiplication, it turns other values to nought. In division, it turns them to infinity. In finance, it turns the world upside down. No wonder investors are dizzy. The US is repeating a Japanese experiment with a zero in one of the most important variables in financial markets: the official overnight interest rate. This “Zirp” (zero interest rate policy) is combined with a nearly infinite quantity of government borrowing. The US government is expected to ...