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A comment on Global real interest rates and the ‘suprasecular’ decline, 1311–2018 (2020). Parent comment

Re:Global real interest rates and the ‘suprasecular’ decline... by mindvirus on Thursday January 28, 2021 @10:20PM (#25953397)
I understand but given the OPs comment, I would think it's always the case. Given the choice between a dollar today and a dollar tomorrow, you should always choose a dollar today since you can choose not to spend it. So it's strictly better than a dollar tomorrow.

The only time I see that it wouldn't be true is if there was risk in carrying it - taxes, negative interest rates, or theft. I could see for example a tonne of gold tomorrow being more valuable than a tonne of gold today since you'd have to deal with storage and security and such.

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Re:Global real interest rates and the ‘suprasecular’ decline... by chordalkeyboard on Friday January 29, 2021 @03:58AM (#25955424)
Everyone is right, there is a marginal bias so that the natural rate of interest is always positive but when storage costs and risk and fungibility/hedges/insurance are factored in the rate can be positive or negative. Like when the cost of oil was positive recently last year.
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