The Fed Wants to Raise Rates but Is Prepared for Negative Rates

The growing financial crisis is causing some countries equivalents to the US Federal Reserve to lower rates to negative levels. That means the more you save the less you get back. That's always been the case when inflation was higher than interest rates, but these negative rates are what you know you are getting from the outset. Bloomberg reports that the latest round of bank stress tests includes an exploration of what banks would do if rates became negative. This does not mean that rates will definitely go negative, but it means that the Fed is making sure that such contingency plans exist.

On the same subject, a former regional Fed president wrote that “Negative Interest Rates Are a Dead End.” Bloomberg QuickTake explains what's been happening with negative rates in Europe and Japan, and has some good links that explain it from various perspectives.

Financial Aid Increases Tuition

Why is everyone surprised? Increased financial aid is a primary factor in boosting college tuitions. When you create a select pool of money for a specific purpose, it does not increase the goods and services produced. It does increase demand. When demand increases more than supply, what happens? Prices rise. Because it was only valid for education, these dollars were insulated from competition from other goods, which meant that they could keep increasing prices for education. Rates were so low, some families that had saved to pay tuition found them irresistible in comparison to drawing down those savings.

Linking In to Podcasting as a Content Strategy

I've been doing my best to learn as much as possible about LinkedIn this past year. One of the more entertaining ways to do it is through the Missing Link podcast. The hosts are heavy users of LinkedIn, and they get some exceptional guests with some interesting opinions and techniques to get the most out of the service. The hosts are annoying, and then after a while you realize you're having some fun during their banter, and they become endearing. A good starter podcast is their summary of the best 21 tips to use in 2016, gleaned from their prior shows.

An interesting aspect of the Missing Link podcast is that it's just one podcast from a software company that is using the podcast medium to reach entrepreneurs, writers, marketers, designers, and others. The company, Rainmaker, sells software that manages content deployment, membership, e-commerce, and many other aspects of communications. They're using podcasts as a means to engage with their audiences. The LinkedIn podcast is also experimenting with text messaging as a means to build the audience at their LinkedIn group and as each new podcast is released.

What are they doing? They engage an audience who become users, with the podcasts serving as marketing tools and client education. That education is packed with ideas how to use digital media, which makes them more reliant on the Rainmaker product.

I've listened to quite a few of the different podcasts and find them to be quite informative. This page lists all of them. Printers should be checking their podcasts about social media, public relations, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Those in the book business may find its podcasts about self-publishing to be worth a hearing. They even have a podcast about podcasting.