Low Interest Rates and the Economy: A Mercatus Colloquium

Invited scholars have contributed essays that bring the best theory and data to bear on the following question as it applies to their individual research focus: “What are the fiscal and economic implications of current low interest rates and of a 200-basis-point increase in the bellwether rates?” In their essays, the authors discuss predictable implications as well as less foreseeable issues. They explore why interest rates are where they are now and what such rates mean for retirement, Social Security, US debt, interest on the US debt, and other related economic questions.

Contributors are affiliated with the Mercatus Center and other research centers that focus on economic policy issues. 

Essays in the series

• The Fall and Future Rise of Interest Rates" by David Beckworth
• "Are Low Interest Rates Natural or Artificial?" by Joseph Ganon
•  "Fiscal and Economic Implications of Higher Interest Rates" by George Selgin
•  "What Would Change Interest Rates?"  by Arnold Kling
• "What Low Interest Rates Mean for State and Local Government Pensions" by Eileen Norcross
• "Low Interest Rates and Fiscal Policy" by Rudolph Penner
•  "Four Ways of Increasing Interest Rates" by Scott Sumner
•  "A Low-Interest-Rate Future" by Allan Meltzer
•  "What Low Interest Rates Mean for Social Security and Retirees" by Jason Fichtner
• "Interest Rates and the Federal Budget Outlook" by Alan Auerbach, William Gale, and Aaron Krupkin
• "Interest Rates, the Dollar, and US Trade Flows" by Daniel Griswold
• "The Effects of Interest Rates on Treasury Revenue Policy" by William Beach