I noticed a new press release from RateWatch in my in-box today, claiming that “First Change In CD Rates In Over Two Months Offers Hope For Savers.” It seems that interest paid on CDs has gone up some microscopic amount, so we can now all be generously rewarded by the banks for lending the banks some of our surplus cash. If you put ten grand in a bank for a few years, you may now earn about 0.75 percent on that. If you have $100,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you can get an even better rate. Back on planet Earth, few people have even $10,000 lying around, and if they are extremely prudent middle-class or lower-income people who managed to scrape together that kind of savings, they can expect it to lose value continually because there is no relatively safe place that pays interest even close to the official rate of inflation for mere ordinary people. If you have access to a hedge fund, it may be another matter, but just as the central banks have planned, with their negative interest rates in Europe and near-negative rates here, ordinary savers are punished for the good of huge politically-connected investors who don’t need to rely on savings accounts or CDs. But if you’re in the business of selling CDs, things are looking a little better, I suppose. Check out these sky-high rates for CDs. Says RateWatch:
First Change In CD Rates In Over Two Months Offers Hope For Savers “National averages of CD rates held steady for more than two months, but recent comments from Fed officials suggest that the central bank will begin to raise the benchmark interest rate in the first half of 2015,” reported Joe Deaux, Economics Analyst at TheStreet. “More than five years removed from the 2008 financial crisis, savers are still dealing with historically low CD rates. But the possibility of faster-than-anticipated rising inflation and the near-end to economic stimulus means rates could be going up soon. This is good news for savers looking to park their cash in the intermediate future.” NATIONAL AVERAGE RESULTS - $10K This Week Money Market 0.15 1 month CD 0.11 3 month CD 0.15 6 month CD 0.23 1 year CD 0.36 2 year CD 0.55 3 year CD 0.75 4 year CD 0.93 5 year CD 1.14