In the Wall Street Journal article from February 21, 2020 “The Central Bank Advised to Use Tool Kits Aggressively during Trouble,” it is suggested that a group of top Wall Street economists recommend that central banks consider a more aggressive monetary stance to counter future economic slumps.

Because of the very low level of interest rates in countries such as the US, the central banks are left with almost no ammunition to revive the overall demand should the economic crisis erupt, so it is held.

Since the EU’s debt crisis over Greece in 2009 and the subsequent problems with Italy, Spain, and Portugal, eurozone banks have dedicated their balance sheets to financing government deficits. At a cost to the commercial banks’ own cash flows, negative deposit rates at the ECB have ensured that no material losses have arisen from holding short-term government bonds on their balance sheets. And the only other beneficiaries have been the large corporations which through bond issues have managed to lock in zero or even negative interest rates on their debt.

Brexit came as a shock to the political bureaucracy that comprises the European Union. They had and still have an ostrichlike stance, with their heads in the sand and their rear ends exposed to passing dangers. Their economic incompetence has been exposed for all to see, as well as their political ineptitude.

According to the Financial Times‘s February 20 article “Why Sweden Ditched Its Negative Rate Experiment,” economists are pondering whether Sweden’s central bank experiment with negative interest rate was a success.

The Federal Reserve’s monumental mistake of cutting rates this past week can only be understood in the context of the rising God complex among central planners: an overwhelming combination of ignorance and arrogance.