A single comment ahead of mine on this timely and serious subject is symptomatic of the dismally
low level of interest in the only world organization we have and in the subject of abysmal human sufferings around the world.
It certainly is a shame to see such
a low level of interest for Blur, which netted an 8/10 from our own Cameron Teague, calling it «smash mouth fun».
On the other hand, the $ 7.70 of projected dividend income was very attractive considering today's
low level of interest rates.
But the point is this: If returns do come in lower than in the past — which seems likely given the current
low level of interest rates — the more you stick to low - cost index funds and ETFs, the better the shot that you'll have at accumulating the savings you'll need to maintain your standard of living in retirement, and the more likely your savings will last at least as long as you do.
On the other hand, domestic demand should continue to be supported by
the low level of interest rates, while the recent depreciation of the yen is giving a significant boost to export growth.
Given
the low level of interest rates, spending on alterations and additions seems likely to remain strong.
The low level of interest rates, relative to historical benchmarks, suggests that the setting of monetary policy is accommodative.
Corporate gearing ratios remain conservative by historical standards and debt servicing costs remain low, reflecting the relatively
low level of interest rates.
The low level of interest rates means that even though debt levels are higher, the share of household income devoted to paying mortgage interest is lower than it has been for some time.
The aggregate debt - to - income ratio has trended higher, but the ratio of interest payments to income is not particularly high, given
the low level of interest rates (Graph 8).
Importantly, this future
low level of interest rates is not due to easy monetary policy; instead, it is the rate expected to prevail when the economy is at full strength and the stance of monetary policy is neutral.
I would encourage you to remember that the current
low levels of interest rates, while in the first instance a reflection of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, are in a larger sense the result of the recent financial crisis, the worst shock to this nation's financial system since the 1930s.
The MPC launched the Term Funding Scheme to make sure that
the lower levels of interest rates now set by the Bank of England are reflected in the costs commercial banks charge households and companies to borrow funds.
All else equal, volatility in bond prices from interest rate moves is higher the longer you go out on the maturity and duration spectrum and
the lower the level of interest rates.
Interest rate risk Although high yield bonds have relatively
low levels of interest rate risk for a given duration or maturity compared to other bond types, this risk can nevertheless be a factor.
Bonds exhibit much higher volatility at
lower levels of interest rates.
PISA shows that Australian students demonstrated a higher level of enjoyment of and motivation to learn science than the OECD average, but
a lower level of interest in broad science topics and less inclination to participate in science activities.
Some principals and teachers assume that low levels of parental involvement reflect
low levels of interest in the education of the children in question.
For this reason, fixed income investments that have medium to high levels of interest rate risk may provide better diversification to equities than investments with
lower levels of interest rate risk.
T - bills have
low levels of both interest rate risk and credit risk.
So, although Bitcoin has the added legitimacy of being traded on futures exchanges, the relatively
low levels of interest from big institutional investors is indicative.
Given the historically
low levels of interest rates and record high refinancing applications in the past four years, many of these potential upgrade buyers likely have recently refinanced and are hesitant to give up their existing low rate mortgage.
Not exact matches
Before Yellen addressed the Economic Club
of Washington, her counterparts in Ottawa released their latest policy statement, in which Canada's central bank said it was keeping its benchmark
interest rate at 0.5 %, a quarter - point shy
of the
lowest level ever.
But in recent years, as the Bank
of Canada held
interest rates to historically
low levels and consumer debt skyrocketed, the federal government tightened mortgage restrictions on regulated financial institutions, including HCG.
Private equity returns remained strong but were
lower than the prior year quarter, while income from our fixed income investment portfolio increased due to a higher average
level of fixed maturity investments and higher short - term
interest rates.
In the category
of communications policy, we also extended our estimate
of how long we expect to keep the short - term
interest rate at exceptionally
low levels to at least mid-2015.
On the other hand, leaving the
interest rate
low encourages the kind
of borrowing and spending that has produced record - high
levels of consumer debt in Canada and pushed housing prices into the stratosphere.
The notes from the meeting show that a number
of Fed officials feel that
interest rates could begin to be raised from their current artificially
low levels sooner than the current target
of sometime in 2015 should certain economic factors continue to improve at a rapid pace.
«Willie Walsh has long been
interested in the
low - cost long haul concept, long before the creation
of Level.
UK house prices should, however, continue to be supported by an ongoing shortage
of property for sale,
low levels of housebuilding, and exceptionally
low interest rates.
«The process
of lowering interest rates causing higher
levels of debt, debt service and spending, I think is coming to an end.»
British inflation fell to its
lowest level in more than 12 years in November, coming in at half the Bank
of England's two percent target and leaving it under no pressure to raise
interest rates anytime soon.
«This can happen with the conversion
of accrued
interest, warrants, or if the initial funding
level is too
low and you have to renegotiate a deal to keep the company operating.»
Possible reasons for the increased lending activity include
lower levels of regulation at smaller banks than at their larger counterparts, recent movement
of lending staffers from large banks to small banks and an increased willingness
of smaller banks to take on credit and
interest risk, the report says.
The continuing highlighting
of household imbalances, despite noting that the risks have in fact lessened somewhat in the past six months, suggests the central bank remains worried that with
interest rates likely to continue at near emergency
low levels, the dangers
of something going off the rails intensifies.
The government beat this projection by nearly $ 1.6 billion — by taking $ 1 billion from reserve, keeping spending
levels $ 600 million less than projected, and through $ 335 million
of savings from
lower than anticipated
interest rates on government debt.
The consumer price index (CPI) for August came in at an anemic 1 percent
level, despite the ECB being in the midst
of QE,
low interest rates and a weaker euro.
Given the starting
level of global
interest rates for the next US president (5,000 - year
lows!)
The first and more important is that
interest rates are expected to rise from their current
low levels, making any given amount
of debt more costly to finance.
Foremost is the significant decline in the natural rate
of interest, or r * (r - star), over the past quarter - century to historically
low levels.
Today's biggest bubble in safe assets, however, is the one in Treasury bonds, which is a direct consequence
of the Fed's policy
of holding
interest rates down at abnormally
low levels.
If they do not, then the U.S. government has to cease imposing them (or impose a
lower level of duties) and reimburse what it has collected in excess along with the accumulated
interest on those sums.
Once the federal government achieved a balanced budget, that
interest rate risk premium quickly disappeared and all
levels of government benefited through
lower borrowing costs.
If the banks could just be stabilized, if the «markets» could just be elevated back in the direction
of peak 401 (k)
levels, if
interest rates could just be
lower so that borrowers would inevitably take the bait, then labor — job creation — would inevitably follow.
The faith in the effectiveness
of interest rate cuts has driven the percentage
of bearish investment advisors to a dangerously
low 25.5 %, while the average equity allocation
of Wall Street strategists is now above 70 %, the highest
level in this market cycle and quite probably a record.
He argued that while Nvidia is
interested in «full blown
Level 5» self - driving cars that don't require any human monitoring, the company's mapping and sensor tools can also be used to support cars with
lower levels of autonomy.
In other words,
interest rates are not rising because
of inflation fears, but because rates are starting to normalize from the unsustainably
low levels reached earlier this year.
The neutral rate — which anchors the
level of the entire yield curve — is a useful starting point for understanding what's driving
low interest rates.
In a
low - inflation environment, nominal
interest rates are also
low, and households are able to service much higher
levels of debt than they could in the past.
The combination
of these factors means real
interest rates are likely to trade at a
lower level than was the case 10 or 20 years ago.