Real rate
Glossary · The macro framework Macro
The interest rate after inflation. If savings pay 4% and money loses 5% of its value in a year, the real rate is minus one, and the saver is paying. Negative real rates held for years are how the debt gets paid down without anyone voting on it.
One of the thesis’s kill criteria: real rates go positive and stay there for years. If savers get paid more than the money loses, the argument gets much harder to make, and we will be the ones to say so.