Over the years, the prohibition has been weakened; in 1980, Congress repealed limitations on interest-bearing savings accounts, as well as the outright ban on interest for consumer checking accounts.
But if capital markets suddenly decide, you know what, the U.S. government doesn't pay its bills, so we're going to start pulling our money out, and the U.S. Treasury has to start to raise interest rates in order to attract more money to pay off our bills, that means higher interest rates for businesses; that means higher interest rates for consumers.
The cut in reserve requirements should free 8 billion reais, or about $2.6 billion, theoretically allowing banks to lower interest rates for consumers and small businesses and help jump-start the moribund economy.
The increase can be attributed to a combination of further growth in PCP [Personal Contract Purchase] financing, ongoing low interest rates for consumers, and continued high levels of manufacturer subsidisation, driving up the volume of affordable new cars coming into the UK market".
Bernanke said the government must trim the record $1.4 trillion deficit in order to avoid rising interest rates for consumers and the government itself.
While the Fed offerd no signals that it would lift its benchmark fed funds rate, which has a far greater impact on interest rates for consumers and businesses, market watchers were already pondering the impact of a turn away from historically low rates.
"If there are members of the [GOP] caucus who want to be in the position of voting for 30-plus30-pluspercentest rates for consumers and benefiting big banks, who don't want to uphold the historic protections for consumers by individual states... that could worry people," he said.
The resulting phenotypes would be of interest both for consumers and producers.
