Title: Japan’s Negative Interest Rates Explained - The New York Times
Headings: Japan’s Negative Interest Rates Explained
Today in Business
Japan’s Negative Interest Rates Explained
What are negative interest rates?
What sort of countries have negative rates?
Rate Goes Negative
What does the Bank of Japan hope to accomplish?
Are negative rates working?
Still, people must be happy that money is cheap, right?

Content: It worked for a while, but recently the effect has faded. Prices are falling again, and the bank needed to try something new. Are negative rates working? Money was already cheap in Japan, and negative rates have succeeded in making it even cheaper. The yield on 10-year government bonds, for instance, fell below zero in February, meaning investors are lending the government money knowing that they will not be repaid in full. Yet deflation has not vanished: Core consumer prices fell 0.5 percent in July. Nor has there been an explosion of new bank lending, as businesses say they can’t find enough profitable uses for funding, even if the money is cheap. And deflation itself undermines the effectiveness of negative rates. If corporate revenues are shrinking because of falling prices, companies will find that even the most generous loan becomes harder to repay.