Ivory marked by the Royal African Company. International Slavery Museum, Liverpool. Wikimedia Commons.
In December 2008 the Federal Reserve put its policy rate at 0 to 0.25 percent.
If money is tight, a near-zero rate does not help if nobody will lend you the money.
If you are in the middle, the rate on new debt falls slowly, and only if you still qualify.
If you have savings, the yield on cash disappears, and you are pushed toward risk.
On December 16, 2008, the Federal Reserve set the federal funds target at a range of 0 to 0.25 percent.
It also bought mortgage bonds and Treasury bonds to pull longer-term rates down.
The price of money was as close to free as modern American policy had ever set it.
Source: Federal Reserve, December 16, 2008, federal funds target of 0 to 0.25 percent.