Swede here. It is always fascinating to read this kind of rabid BS about the very country you live and operate in - it is as if a completely different society is being described. Whatever brings the clicks, I guess.
This kind of brings me back to Fox News reporting cataclysmic imagery about cars being burnt in my city (Gothenburg) some time back. External "perspectives" are comedic gold, indeed.
It's strange, whenever you read about something you know a lot about in a newspaper they will usually get so much wrong that the article actually makes you less knowledgeable about the subject.
Similar to how Fox News reported that there are hundreds of No Go Zones for non-muslims in England and other European countries, going as far as to claim that Birmingham (England's second most populous city) is only visited by Muslims. Patently untrue, but because of how far removed their audience is from the rest of the world it became accepted as fact.
What a silly headline. The actual quote is (emphasis mine)
> Björn Eriksson, former head of Sweden’s national police and now head of Säkerhetsbranschen, a lobbying group for the security industry, told The Local, “I’ve heard of people keeping cash in their microwaves because banks won’t accept it.”
Yes. But one person knew another person that had heard about a person that had put money in a microwave, so there you go.
The obvious benefit of the microwave is that it's essentially a Faraday cage so you don't need a special tinfoil hat for your money, only for yourself.
Why should anyone lose money because they've decided to save it for the future, with no inherent risk?
It's one thing to lose it to investments. It's another thing to expect the money to sit without gaining appreciable interest, and effectively losing value because of inflation.
If someone puts 1,000 units of currency into a bank, why should they ever not be able to retrieve that 1,000 units at any reasonable point in the future?
Keep in mind that Sweden, like many european countries, has much stronger social policies than the USA.
In the USA, due to the anemic social care programs for people in dire straits (long-term unemployed, sick, young, old), it is necessary for people to individually save up money to guarantee safety in emergencies. To that end, saving in banks is rewarded with interest rates.
In more social countries though such emergency savings are spread across the entire population in big pots. People saving their money in bank accounts are effectively keeping it out of those pots, and from society at large, which society punishes by making such individual savings volatile.
>If someone puts 1,000 units of currency into a bank, why should they ever not be able to retrieve that 1,000 units at any reasonable point in the future?
Why should a bank offer service for free? Yes, they might make money doing stuff with your money, but that shouldn't be a mandatory requirement for a bank.
> If someone puts 1,000 units of currency into a bank, why should they ever not be able to retrieve that 1,000 units at any reasonable point in the future?
Obviously, to stop people from running the bank. You can say it's a bad idea, but it's not like the reasoning is mysterious.
They certainly can, which is something the article intentionally ignores.
They could choose to invest into any number of assets instead of holding cash. Open a brokerage account and buy a high quality stock that produces a dividend.
I'm not sure what the hell this article is about, savings still have, and will continue to have, positive returns as long as someone can invest the money in the market at positive return. The interest of the central bank isn't really interesting from that perspective.
Euribor is the basic interest rate that European banks use to determine interest rates on savings and mortgages. A negative value basically means that you have to pay the bank if you want them to store your savings (which they are free to invest or lend). Banks will typically give you some extra percentage points over Euribor though, so as a customer you currently see somewhere around positive zero of interest on your bank savings in my country.
Central banking is central planning that gives the richest more money. There would not be negative interest rate in a true market economy where markets sets the interest rate.
The new central printed money is flowing to the stock exchange and creating an epic housing bubble in Sweden.
The banks here used internal risk weights so created a loan on a million just cost them around 2000 that was fractions of fractions of cash needed to create housing loans.
Personally I think its housing market loan Ponzi scheme where the last ones in to loan when the prices no longer rise are set to loose.
Central banking is the solution economies have come up with to the problem of the market shitting the bed every decade. It's outcompeted the alternatives basically everywhere and for good reason.
[+] [-] csvan|10 years ago|reply
This kind of brings me back to Fox News reporting cataclysmic imagery about cars being burnt in my city (Gothenburg) some time back. External "perspectives" are comedic gold, indeed.
[+] [-] Numberwang|10 years ago|reply
It's strange, whenever you read about something you know a lot about in a newspaper they will usually get so much wrong that the article actually makes you less knowledgeable about the subject.
Makes me question reading news at all.
[+] [-] ukkkkkk|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scrollaway|10 years ago|reply
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/12/paris-lawsuit-f...
[+] [-] vskarine|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0x4a42|10 years ago|reply
http://www.thenation.com/article/french-fry-fox/
[+] [-] anunderachiever|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikkom|10 years ago|reply
> Björn Eriksson, former head of Sweden’s national police and now head of Säkerhetsbranschen, a lobbying group for the security industry, told The Local, “I’ve heard of people keeping cash in their microwaves because banks won’t accept it.”
[+] [-] blixt|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Kiro|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alkonaut|10 years ago|reply
The obvious benefit of the microwave is that it's essentially a Faraday cage so you don't need a special tinfoil hat for your money, only for yourself.
[+] [-] colindean|10 years ago|reply
It's one thing to lose it to investments. It's another thing to expect the money to sit without gaining appreciable interest, and effectively losing value because of inflation.
If someone puts 1,000 units of currency into a bank, why should they ever not be able to retrieve that 1,000 units at any reasonable point in the future?
[+] [-] Mithaldu|10 years ago|reply
In the USA, due to the anemic social care programs for people in dire straits (long-term unemployed, sick, young, old), it is necessary for people to individually save up money to guarantee safety in emergencies. To that end, saving in banks is rewarded with interest rates.
In more social countries though such emergency savings are spread across the entire population in big pots. People saving their money in bank accounts are effectively keeping it out of those pots, and from society at large, which society punishes by making such individual savings volatile.
[+] [-] MichaelGG|10 years ago|reply
Why should a bank offer service for free? Yes, they might make money doing stuff with your money, but that shouldn't be a mandatory requirement for a bank.
[+] [-] thaumasiotes|10 years ago|reply
Obviously, to stop people from running the bank. You can say it's a bad idea, but it's not like the reasoning is mysterious.
[+] [-] rwmj|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adventured|10 years ago|reply
They could choose to invest into any number of assets instead of holding cash. Open a brokerage account and buy a high quality stock that produces a dividend.
[+] [-] alkonaut|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mstade|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] avian|10 years ago|reply
http://www.euribor-rates.eu/
Euribor is the basic interest rate that European banks use to determine interest rates on savings and mortgages. A negative value basically means that you have to pay the bank if you want them to store your savings (which they are free to invest or lend). Banks will typically give you some extra percentage points over Euribor though, so as a customer you currently see somewhere around positive zero of interest on your bank savings in my country.
[+] [-] acd|10 years ago|reply
The new central printed money is flowing to the stock exchange and creating an epic housing bubble in Sweden.
The banks here used internal risk weights so created a loan on a million just cost them around 2000 that was fractions of fractions of cash needed to create housing loans.
Personally I think its housing market loan Ponzi scheme where the last ones in to loan when the prices no longer rise are set to loose.
[+] [-] Steko|10 years ago|reply