Scott Minerd predicts negative yields for U.S. Treasury bonds (2020)

We could ultimately see a ‘yield’ of negative 50 basis points on the 10-year note, and corporate yields in the neighborhood of 1 percent for investment grade corporate debt.

~ Scott Minerd, Guggenheim Partners, "Markets are in ‘eye of the storm’ and mounting turmoil will drive stocks lower and 10-year bonds to negative 0.50%," MarketWatch.com, October 22, 2020

Kevin Duffy looks under economic hood and applies free lunch fallacy to NIRP and QE

There is no free lunch. Polices like negative interest rates and Quantitative Easing are doing damage to the underlying economic engine. They misallocate capital, discourage thrift and promote fast money over slowly building wealth. At the end of the day, central banks are not all powerful. They are not immune to the laws of economics.

~ Kevin Duffy, "Central Bankers Are Starting to Lose Control," The Market, November 19, 2019

Alan Greenspan sees negative interest rates spreading to the U.S. (2019)

You’re seeing it pretty much throughout the world. It’s only a matter of time before it’s more in the United States.

~ Alan Greenspan, "Alan Greenspan says it’s ‘only a matter of time’ before negative rates spread to the US," CNBC interview, September 4, 2019

Barron's on the bizarro world of negative yielding bonds

There’s a hot new investment trend sweeping global markets: losing money on purpose. Some $13 trillion in bonds worldwide had negative yields as of the end of June, up from $8 trillion at the end of last year.

That works out to $1,700 worth for each person on Earth, which you’d think would be enough to satisfy demand for turning savings into less savings. Nope. The European Central Bank just signaled that it wants to begin pushing yields lower. It recently passed Japan as the No. 1 player in subzero yields.

 Things are getting weird for bonds in Europe. Even some junk-rated debt there pays less than nothing. Greece, which missed the deadline for a loan payment to the International Monetary Fund in 2015, a first for a developed country, now comes in below the U.S. on 10-year yields. Switzerland’s 50-year bonds just went negative. That makes it the second country, after Denmark, to have minus signs across all maturities.

If tight trousers have taught us anything, it’s that developments in Europe can eventually squeeze America. Euro-denominated bonds from companies like McDonald's, Apple, and AT&T are priced for negative yields...

~ Jack Hough, "Why Some Investors Are Buying Bonds That Lose Money," Barron's, July 27, 2019

Jim Grant on negative interest rates

We are living in a unique time. Negative rates aren’t a naturally occurring phenomenon in finance but a creation of our ingenious central bankers. Furthermore, they seem to defy common sense. Interest rates exist because we want things now rather than later. That’s the nature of human desire. Negative interest rates turn that on its head. So they are a sign not of constructive policy making, but of trouble.

~ Jim Grant, "Jim Grant Is Bullish on Gold, Bearish on Kraft," Barron's, August 1, 2016

Daniel Henninger on government centralization hitting a wall, epitomized by NIRP

The "administrative state" hasn't been a phrase known to drive people into the street.  Until now.  What we are witnessing is a global government fail - across Europe, the Middle East, in Beijing, Delphi, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

[...]

No better symptom exists of the compact breaking apart than the European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and the Bank of Japan.  They epitomize the exhaustion of elite administrative intelligence.  For seven years, they failed at restoring even average economic strength, disappearing now into a black hole called negative interest rates.

~ Daniel Henninger, "Government Hits the Wall," The Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2016

John Rubino on negative interest rates

Interest rates are the price of money, and as such they tell investors, entrepreneurs and consumers what to do. Low interest rates generally say “buy, build, consume, take risks” while high rates say “save, sell, conserve, wait.” But zero or negative rates? Are they just an extreme version of low rates or is there a qualitative difference? Everyone has a theory about this but in the absence of historical precedent, we’ll have to wait and see.

~ John Rubino, "Lowest Interest Rates EVER," DollarCollapse.com, February 24, 2015