CNBC - Ron Paul: US Interest Rates are Going Negative, and the Fed Can't Stop It

Article by Stephanie Landsman in CNBC

Ron Paul is warning negative interest rates will crush the global economy.The former Republican congressman from Texas believes the U.S. won’t be the exception.

“We will join the rest of them and go to total negative rates in hopes that that will be the solution,” he told CNBC’s “Futures Now” on Thursday. “We’ve never had as many currencies in negative interest rates. $17 trillion worth of bonds [are] in negative interest rates. It’s never existed before. And, that’s a bubble. So, we’re in the biggest bond bubble in history, and it’s going to burst.”

Paul, a former presidential candidate and vocal libertarian known for his economic and stock market bubble warnings, contends the Federal Reserve’s policies are powerless in this environment. He doesn’t believe this week’s Fed meeting will provide any kind of relief and cutting rates will not be the answer.

“You can’t predict exactly where the creation of credit goes,” said Paul. “We have a ton of inflation with all that QE [quantitative easing]. And, every time you lower interest rates below market levels and create new credit, that’s a bubble.”

Paul has been warning that a once in a lifetime market drop of 50% or more will strike stocks. With bonds yielding negative rates now in focus, he suggests the danger is ballooning to unseen levels.

Yet, he’s unsure of the timing of a collapse. “You don’t know this precise time. But you know it can happen,” he said. “How do you sell a bond that pays a negative rate? Who’s going to jump up and down?”

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