"I do not believe that the ECB has hit the effective lower bound on policy rates."
- & Christine Lagarde, 1956 – present, incoming president of the ECB
"It will not be long before the spread of negative interest rates reaches the U.S."
- & Alan Greenspan, 1926 – present, former chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987-2006
Will Interest Rate Cuts Be Enough to Forestall a Recession?
In his widely beloved children's book, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", British author Lewis Carroll takes his readers on a trip to a fantasy world that has no apparent connection with reality. It's the story of a young girl (Alice) who fell down a rabbit hole and entered a bizarre world where up is down, left is right, and even numbers behave erratically.
Carroll begins his novel with a pointed dedication: "There will be nonsense in it!" Later on, when one of the book's more colorful characters, the Mock Turtle, ventures to describe this upsidedown world, he quips: "Well, I have never heard it before, but it sounds uncommon nonsense."