Where Are Interest Rates Going?


~ Joyce Brothers

Yesterday’s post outlined in detail the debt overhang that I believe will lead to a big debt hangover. The mechanics of how this might play out will have a major effect on where interest rates will head. Why should you care?

Well, if you have any kind of debt it will affect the interest rate you pay to service that debt. If you invest in bonds, it will affect the price of those bonds or those of the ETF or mutual fund that holds them. If a true debt spiral occurs, a market panic could ensue that triggers selling in all asset classes similar to what we saw last year. It may also affect your tax rates.

What Could Cause Interest Rates to Rise?

Earlier this week, Thicken My Wallet asked What Is the Price of Public Debt to You? One implication of higher debt at all levels of government is that interest rates are likely to go higher as a result. Here’s why:

When governments spend more money than they take in, their options are the same as yours. They can essentially do one of three things, or any combination of them. Each choice has different consequences and most of them aren’t very nice. We’ll go through each of the 3 and explain what they mean to you:











  1. Decrease Spending: This would most likely entail budget cuts and public service reductions. Obviously, governments have gone the other way lately, spending trillions to keep the financial system from imploding. At some point, that bill is going to come due and something’s got to give.
  2. Increase Income: For governments, this usually means raising taxes. Do you want to be the one to tell a struggling parent or business owner who is already having trouble making ends meet that their taxes are going up on top of everything else?
  3. Increase Debt: This is where we get to the meat of the issue. Governments generally borrow money by issuing bonds, which are basically I.O.U.s. Now most governments worldwide have already issued a ton of debt in the form of bonds to help pay for stimulus packages and bailouts. The bond market has already had to digest a lot of this paper. Buyers have had a good appetite for bonds as they were seen as health food in comparison to stocks. But even the heartiest appetite has its limits, and there is widespread speculation over whether, or when investors might just choke on this massive debt issuance. Anyone know the Heimlich maneuver?

The thing to remember about the bond market is that price and yield move inversely. That means that if prices move lower, interest rates will move higher. This is where the supply-demand balance of the bond market can move the interest rates that affect you. If demand for bonds dries up, bond prices will fall. If bond prices fall, interest rates will rise. So if investors are unwilling or unable to keep buying government debt, governments may have to pay more in interest costs to sell that debt. A debt spiral would result if they began to issue debt just to pay interest on existing debt. Yeah, that would be really bad.

What Could Cause Interest Rates to Fall or Stay Where They Are?

While I certainly understand how and why interest rates have the potential to rise, perhaps a lot, I sometimes wonder if a poor economy would somehow help to keep them in check. That’s been the case over the past year. Even as equities came roaring back, many investors clung to the perceived safety of bonds. Does this paradigm break at some point, with debt regurgitation trumping economic worries, or will some investors still perceive bonds as the best house in a bad neighbourhood?

Another factor is that interest rates have been so low for so long, it seems that, if nothing else, mean reversion will eventually cause them to climb.

What do you think? Are interest rates headed higher or lower?

Written by Kim Petch

6 Responses to Where Are Interest Rates Going?

  1. Thanks for the link. If interest rates decrease further, this is because of a nightmare scenario of no growth or deflation (see Japan). In some respects then, we want to have interest rates go up but not too high. Have a good weekend.

    • Yes, I guess a Japan-style deflation is what I’m concerned about. Note that during yesterday’s equity sell-off, investors fled to U.S. Treasuries, driving rates down a bit. I think that’s because the worry of the day was Europe. If the worry shifts to the U.S. I would think Treasuries might sell off, causing rates to rise. This could happen rather quickly given the sheer quantity of money parked in Treasuries at the moment. We’ve seen what can happen when everyone pulls the ripcord at once.

      The U.S. has the ability to print money to counteract deflation and that could potentially lead to inflation down the road. I guess a little inflation would be good right about now. That goes along with your idea of wanting a small rise in rates, but not too much. Thanks for your input!

  2. Trying to figure out what is going to happen next is not a concern at all. Rationalizing the areas to invest in for the long haul is.

    Look at oil and gas in Canada. The funds that invest in them are up 73% in the past year. Oil and gas is not going away. We are always going to pay for it. Pipelines are not going away, they are always going to pay a fat dividend yeild.

    The technoology build out this year is going to be huge as more companies embrace the build out cycle to the new awesome Microsoft product and the low cost of computer enhancement thanks to new entrants like Lenovo. As productivity oer active worker has skyrocketed so too has investment to sustain this advancing productivity. Hence, Tech wins.

    As more and more are fleeing their homes and leaving them vacant they are renting apartments. Hence, Apartment reits win in this economy. They start filling up and they can raise the rent. As interest rates start ticking up later this year the entry cost to rebuy into a home will move higher and higher and out of reach of anyone with 21% credit card debt so they will have to stay renting.

    As the cost of oil stays high the companies that build the equipment to get oil out of the ground sell more equipment and they buy more steel. Hence, mid cap oil and gas suppliers win as does the steel industry as a whole. If steel is winning then the COAL industry that supplies the coal to make the steel wins.

    If population expansion continues at its break neck pace then agricultural firms and the potash industry wins huge. Hence MOO and companies like POT simply pile up profits.

    We can run scared from the potential for doom and gloom, I concur. But, we can use some logic to determine some areas we can be confident investing in and limit our exposure to say 50% cash and no debt with the other 50% invested in the areas mentioned above with a guide towards YEILD to limit the risk further.

    • I like your thoughts on pipelines and technology. I love the idea of setting a risk limit and carrying zero debt. If 50% is right for you, that’s great. My point is simply that I’d like to see people thinking about which level is right for them.

      I also like the idea of looking for some stable yield. The only risk there is that, if rates do rise significantly, dividend paying stocks sometimes don’t do as well since investors can get risk-free yield from other instruments.

      Thanks for your comment!

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