Larry Summers’ Interest Rate Conundrum

CEPS High-Level Briefs

8 Pages Posted: 21 Jan 2014

See all articles by Thomas Mayer

Thomas Mayer

Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS); Deutsche Bank, London

Date Written: January 16, 2014

Abstract

Larry Summers has attracted much attention recently for invoking old theories of secular stagnation to explain the persistence of low interest rates in the recent past. The German economist Carl Christian von Weizsäcker has pointed to a retirement savings glut as the cause for low rates. In the view of Thomas Mayer, however, as expressed in this High-Level Brief, these theses lack both theoretical and empirical support and he offers as an alternative explanation the fall-out from the recent credit boom-bust cycle.

Keywords: Larry Summers, stagnation, retirement savings, interest rates, credit

Suggested Citation

Mayer, Thomas, Larry Summers’ Interest Rate Conundrum (January 16, 2014). CEPS High-Level Briefs, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2381889

Thomas Mayer (Contact Author)

Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) ( email )

1 Place du Congres, 1000
Brussels, 1000
Belgium

Deutsche Bank, London ( email )

Winchester House
Great Winchester Street, 1
London EC2N 2DB
United States

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