The Shocking Reason Governments and Corporations Are Begging People to Destroy Their Own Money

" There is nothing new under the sun," Ecclesiastes wrote. For the most part, the pseudonymous biblical poet was right on the money. The credit market, for instance, has existed in one form or another since 3,000 BCE or thereabouts - around 5,000 years . At the dawn of human civilization, the Mesopotamian economy featured interest rates as high as 20%. And by the time Cyrus II of Persia ("Cyrus the Great" to his friends) conquered Babylon in the sixth century BCE, creditors could often reap a positively mouthwatering 40%. Ah, the good old days... Unfortunately (and with apologies to Ecclesiastes), there is something very new and very dangerous under the sun these days. A frenzy of capital destruction - the end result is functionally no different than gathering up all your money, dousing it with gasoline, and setting it alight. It's unprecedented; it has never happened before, in all of the five millennia that tribal chieftains, warlords, monarchies, principalities, Westphalian nation-states, and multinational corporations have been buying and selling debt. I'm talking about negative yield. If that sounds unnatural... perverse.... even insane... well, that's because it is. And not much good can come out of it. As dangerous as this situation is, there is a way forward through it. We don't have to take what's coming lying down... Full Story As dangerous as this situation is, there is a way forward through it. We don't have to take what's coming lying down... Full Story Tags: Bonds To get full access to all Money Morning content, click here About Money Morning: Money Morning gives you access to a team of ten market experts with more than 250 years of combined investing experience – for free . Our experts – who have appeared on FOXBusiness, CNBC, NPR, and BloombergTV – deliver daily investing tips and stock picks, provide analysis with actions to take, and answer your biggest market questions. Our goal is to help our millions of e-newsletter subscribers and Moneymorning.com visitors become smarter, more confident investors. Disclaimer: © 2019 Money Morning and Money Map Press. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright of the United States and international treaties. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including the world wide web), of content from this webpage, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Money Morning. 16 W. Madison St. Baltimore, MD, 21201. The post The Shocking Reason Governments and Corporations Are Begging People to Destroy Their Own Money appeared first on Money Morning - We Make Investing Profitable .