Quote from vv111y:
Question I have - for any econ guys - are the market fundamentalists / austrian school guys right that market determined interest rates are 1)better, 2)won't cause boom/bust cycles? As opposed to centrally controlled rates ala central banks.
Any interest rate will necessarily cause inflation unless a trade surplus evens it out.
The trade surplus is necessary to even out the loss which occurs because a %5 interest loan with an increase of wealth of %4 (or inflation) is a net loss of %1 per year for the country.
If a country has a %1 trade surplus at the beginning of this cycle no inflation will occur. This is what happened right after the great depression. If the country does not have a trade surplus or has a deficit it will go into debt which will equal at least %1 per year.
On a approx 70 year cycle depending on surpluses, deficits this could add up to a %70 loss minus any increase in the efficiency of production say %20. This will eventually lead to collapse with an exponential increase of debt at the end just like right now.
If we do not have massive trade surpluses to pay off this debt right now the result will be massive foreclosures and a default on the massive interest debt. Unless people are refinanced at %0 interest this will happen and already is.
After all these massive amount of foreclosures are defaulted on along with the massive amounts of accumulated interest debt prices will drop like a rock. This will result in a situation much like after the Great Depression.