[dnautics]

~>. High interest rates are a market failure.

Only if you think that unbridled growth is an inherently good thing. Let's take an example, and say we run out if oil without a good substitute. Suddenly interest rates go up, because with an uncertain future nobody wants to count of the future productivity of any given individual. Do you run around and complain that there's a market failure; interest rates are too high, we need to encourage more consumption to keep the economy running!!! Does that seem like sensible policy to you?

> 2. You accept the reality that wages are sticky, and most people actually like the thing that they know how much they get paid tomorrow.

That's fine but the prescribed solution is to devalue the notional amount people get paid. So basically you are force feeding a lie. Moreover, it's one which hurts people getting paid less more than people getting paid more. Also, lower incomes are less flexible to quit their job and find a new one because their current one isn't paying as much in real value. I'd much much rather put companies in a position where they give lower income individuals a pay cut (or find a way to make their employee's labor more valuable) as a signal that they should look for a better paying situation than boil the water underneath them slowly. Anything less is coddling businesses.

[beefield]

> Only if you think that unbridled growth is an inherently good thing.

This has nothing to do with growth, but with welfare not being created due to otherwise willing seller and buyer not being able to transact due to artificially restricted pricing in the market.

> That's fine but the prescribed solution is to devalue the notional amount people get paid.

I think you confuse inflation and interest rates. Negative interest rate does not devalue money (price of bread says the same over time), but if you happen to have savings, those will of course be deminishing over time. Obviously, almost by definition, it is rich people, not poor people that have savings and bear the pain of negative rates.

[dnautics]

Negative interest rate stimulates borrowing, which is an increase in the money supply, which is inflation. This is precisely the policy mechanism by which it's supposed to work. If you deny that negative interest rates cause inflation, you deny the raison d'être of the negative interest rate.

Rich people are not counting on savings interest to make money. They have investments. For example, land. With negative inflation rate, you encourage mortgage lending, which drives up the price of land, which is great for rich people. Similar careful analysis of what actually rich people do with their money will reveal likewise fashions by which a negative interest rate helps the wealthy.