As an aside, we wonder why the Fed does not similarly reduce the interest they pay on bank reserve deposits with them to zero from the current .25 percent?
It should be noted that Bank of New York Mellon has a current dividend yield of 2.06%. Are those dividends taxable? Will depositors be able to claim a lost on the negative interest they pay to BNY Mellon?
Not a sign of deflation if you understand it, although I am sure some will tease that conclusion out of this. Negative real interest rates are the hallmark of quantitative easing, which are artificially low interest rates and the creation of non-organic money, printing paper if you will. It is just they are nominally positive on the longer end of the curve. When they go nominally negative on the short end for a sustained period, you know we are not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
This is a clear sign of a topsy turvy financial system, of dysfunctional markets, of predatory banking, distorted risks and returns, and a broken economy with negative real interest rates that are likely to become...more negative. The US can get by with this because of who they are, and what the dollar represents to world trade.
There is a major bear raid on gold today, capping the earlier flight to safety. I think this is more indicative of extremes at the short term in the trends of stocks, bonds and dollars. But the Non Farm Payrolls are tomorrow, and the market is watching them and the situation in Europe rather nervously.
Remember this story the next time someone says that the problem with gold bullion is that it pays no interest, and there are costs to store it.
If the Fed can create it, they can also confiscate it, and transfer it to their friends, creating winners and losers, and sometimes almost at will. And that is the problem with fiat money and the banking cartel that surrounds it.
WSJ
BNY Mellon to Charge for Some Deposits Above $50 Million
BY LIZ RAPPAPORT
Bank of New York Mellon Corp. is preparing to charge some large depositors to hold their cash, in the latest sign of the worries roiling global markets.
The biggest U.S. custodial bank said this week in a note to clients that it will begin slapping a fee next week on customers that have vastly increased their deposit balances over the past month.
The bank cited the massive dollar deposits it has received over recent weeks, as investors and corporations retreat from financial markets amid Europe's debt crisis and the recent debate over U.S. government ...
