RE: Re: RE: Re: P.S.

["Davies, Daniel" <daniel.davies@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

They were nominal rates, on a couple of short term bank deposit series, in
late 1998.  US T-Bill nominal rates went negative in the 1930s, according to
Homer's "History of Interest Rates".

NB that the interesting thing was that nominal rates, ex ante, were
negative.  Real rates, ex post, have often been negative and remained so for
long periods of time, as anyone who held T-Bonds in the 1970s, or for that
matter Weimar debt, will tell you.

dd

-----Original Message-----
From: Sabri Oncu [mailto:soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 12 May 2002 01:24
To: PEN-L
>Subject: [PEN-L:25903] Re: RE: Re: P.S.


Jim writes:

> have _real_ interest rates really gone
> negative? Deflation boosts real interest
> rates.

Well. I know that "interest rates" went negative very briefly in
Japan a few years ago, as it was reported by a speaker at some
seminar. It must be before 1999 since after that I stopped
attending such seminars. Having never seen negative nominal
interest rates in my life, my assumption was that it must have
been the real interest rates. I will do some research to see
whether they were nominal or real interest rates.

Sabri


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