Financial analyst Andy Hoffman says the negative interest rates installed last week by the European Central Bank will eventually mean depositors will pay the banks in Europe to hold their money. Hoffman explains, “I believe that will happen in time . . . inevitably there are only so many tools in the arsenal of the central bank. They can print money and lower interest rates . . . all that stuff. Now, the ECB, like the Bank of Japan, and the Fed are at the bottom of the barrel. . . . What they are trying to get them to do is for the banks to take the money out and lend it. . . . Of course, it’s ridiculous because they are not going to lend anything. They are insolvent. That’s why the ECB is also reinstating . . . their Long Term Refinancing Operation to liquefy banks like Deutsche Bank and Portugal’s Espirito Santo because they are in big trouble. So, will it get down to depositors? Well, you have two choices. Either eat those losses, and I just mentioned, they are already drowning in insolvency, or pass them along to depositors. Yes, I think in the coming months, you will see banks with negative deposit rates. . . . I would take my money out.”
So, where do you put money when bank deposits turn negative? Hoffman, who has 15 years’ experience as a Wall Street analyst, contends, “Some people say gold is a barbarous relic and you can’t eat gold. One of their favorite reasons why you shouldn’t own it is that it pays no interest. Now, paying no interest is paying higher than a bank account is going to be paid. We say at Miles Franklin that gold and silver is not an investment. It’s your money. It’s the way you used to think of money. You didn’t worry that your bank would be insolvent . . . that the bank would be bailed in or bailed out with your taxpayer money. Now, people are saying is it really safer to have my money in a bank? Isn’t it safer to have gold and silver? I think more and more people around the world . . . are going to realize gold and silver are real money.”
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