Despite support from the likes of President Donald Trump and some financial experts, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says that the Federal Reserve is not going to push interest rates into the negative. Despite the fed's insistence, bond traders are still betting on negative rates.
In an address on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has stated that the Fed was not looking to implement negative interest rates. The Fed has so far pulled out all the stops in limiting the economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, previously slashing interest rates to zero, and it was at least somewhat expected that the fed would pursue negative rates. Bond traders were, in fact, hedging on it.
"I know there are fans of the policy, but for now it's not something that we're considering," Powell said, "We think we have a good toolkit and that's the one that we will be using."
Fans of going negative included President Trump, who took to Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) to voice his support for negative rates. "As long as other countries are receiving the benefits of Negative Rates, the USA should also accept the "GIFT". Big numbers!" said Trump.Trump is joined by a number of experts including Harvard Professor Kenneth Rogoff. Rogoff previously voiced his concern that the Fed's purchasing of corporate debt and junk bonds could become an issue if negative rates weren't pursued.
""I think if we are able to do deeply negative interest rate policy, it would keep a lot of companies afloat. There would be others that would need to be restructured. The fact it's taken off the table is a mistake," said Rogoff during an appearance on CNBC.
Bond traders have hedged on negative rates for some time, amid the support of Trump and experts such as Rogoff, and even appear to be continuing to do so despite the insistence that the fed would not be seeking negative rates and speculation by many experts that negative rates would be more harmful than beneficial.
The effectiveness of negative rates is drawn into question when one turns to Europe, where some countries have adopted negative rates to only negligible success. The economies of the countries where negative rates have been adopted are still remarkably unsettled by the pandemic, with no real signs of relief from the rates.