Interest Rates: History And Overview One may think of 'interest rates' as merely a concern of cutting edge modern economic news. Indeed, the rate of interest has been the obsession of the business media of recent weeks. One March 21, 2005 Business Week article proclaimed, "Pop! Goes the Auto Bubble -- with oil prices and interest rates rising! (Mandel, 2005) But in actual fact interest rates are simply the percent at which an individual is charged for borrowing money, either from a bank, a human being, or another entity such as a credit card company. Interest rates are an old institution -- once, the rate of interest was called 'usury' and banned by the...
Now charging a reasonable rate of interest for borrowing money is considered a necessary fact of modern life, particularly for large, durable goods such as cars, houses, and appliances.
Public choice theorists focus on the question of what government policies are likely to be implemented in a given political setting, rather than what policies would produce a desirable outcome if they were implemented. The conclusions of the public choice theory tend to increase skepticism towards the prospect that giving government power over various areas of human affairs will actually have beneficial results, regardless of the democratic control exercised by
Interest Rate Risk Management This report aims to discuss the volatility of interest rates and how that issue is important for insurance companies, especially those underwriting premature death risks and selling annuities. The report also presents insights into why interest rates are important for other financial institutions such as banks and corporations who hold interest related securities throughout their accounting processes. Finally, the essay offers a status of the interest rate
NPV This becomes more complicated when trying to determine the changes that would occur to the net present value of today's dollars, especially given the uncertainties involved with changes in the interest rate. On the one hand, the value of future dollars (i.e. today's dollars saved) is eroded by inflation, so a lower interest rate is detrimental to NPV; on the other hand, higher interest rates mean more lucrative lending and
Interest Rate Swaps The assertion that interest rate swaps require markets to be inefficient is inaccurate. While swap markets benefit from some inefficiency, firms may have compelling non-financial reasons for wanting to make changes to the timing of their cash flows, which is the basis for firms undertaking swaps. For these end users of swaps, the swap is most beneficial at fair value, and that is the price at which the
Interest Rates and Pension Plans The strength of private retirement plans must be maintained in the upcoming years due to the increasing number of Baby Boomers who will be retiring in the United States. Many retired Americans rely on private pensions and employer-sponsored retirement savings as a secondary source of income in addition to Social Security (Brinner 131). In addition, because the human life expectancy has increased dramatically over recent years,
In the article, they surveyed 69 different countries, searching for answers on what affects FDI. Where, they found that interest rates will affect FDI flow: as the cost of financing, purchasing new equipment and the strength or weakness of the economy will play an important part. In the case of Australia, this is significant because the low interest rates that they have had in place since the 1980's, have
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