Laszlo

I was just about to post a thread about this. It would be nice to hear Stephan's views about what the implications might be if he'd hypothetically win the election. He claims himself to be a free market guy, and I don't know too much about him to tell how much of a free market guy he really is and how much of his fortune is a result of other means, but I believe he has some well founded ideas that might be applicable also in macro economics. But I might be completely off base. However, he will never make it because he's not a true politician, he doesn't really use rhetorical tricks to get sympathies, he's never afraid to voice his opinions, which a lot comes across as extremely arrogant to the masses - especially when taken out of context. Every time he opens his mouth media is having a field day ridiculing him, so he will never be able to get enough support to even have a chance.

I am by no means an expert but negative interest basically means that instead of getting interest on having money in the bank you have to pay to have your money in the bank. Wha the effects will be I don't know, but one reason for the negative interest might be a desire from the central bank to further stimulate the economy by trying to get people to spend their money instead of having them saved up a bank. The negative interest has not yet trickled down to our private banks, but it's not an unlikely scenario that it will happen. There's an article with a few short bullet points at SvD where they explain what it means: http://www.svd.se/naringsliv/pengar/vad-hander-om-rantan-blir-negativ_4324607.svd