Quoted from o-din:Unfortunately, ever since then interest rates have been kept low as an incentive to keep people spending what they don't have and punishment for those that would save their money in a safe account or even a long term bond. Probably a result of the pumped up economics that were manufactured in the 80s and the long term consequences of that. All to avert disaster and to keep things chugging along.
This last crisis, The Great Recession, all came about due to Wall Street shenanigans with the mortgage backed securities. Since the local banks could palm off their crappy loans to Wall Street, which "repackaged" the crappy loans with a few good loans and then foisted them and the risk off on the public the banks could go for another round only the next time the loans were even crappier since the local bank could keep the profits and sell off the risk to Wall Street who would repackage another tranche of crappy loans. It worked until it didn't.
Every politician out there is/was in bed with Wall Street.
The Great Depression in the 1930s in an interesting study. How we got there, etc. But two of the things that made a bad situation worse and brought on the Great Depression were the trade barriers that were set up; And interest rates were jacked up.
Country A set up a trade barrier to "protect" its markets and Country B would do likewise. Now, your markets for you to sell to collapse.
The second item that brought on The Great Depression was that The Fed raised interest rates. So, just the time business needed some government help, business could not get capital to operate with.
Ben Bernanke, or Helicopter Ben, as he was called, had studied The Great Depression and knew what rising interest rates brought on. So, Uncle Ben took rates down to zero. I am of the opinion that we would have had in much worse in 2008-2009 had he not dropped rates to the floor.
And what pisses me off the most is that the Wall Street icons got all of these hand slapping free rides for the BS they caused and, as you noted, I can't make any interest money on my savings. But that was Uncle Ben, and Janet Yellen, keeping those rates down so the only way to play the money game is stocks.
It is all kicking the can down the road. I agree. Wall Street needs to get over itself and rates need to normalize. But a lot of companies have larded up in the last 10 years with easy money. They are going to feel some pain.