As Summers notes, unlike new business ventures in the traditional sectors, those in the digital economy may require a reduced amount of money to start up, thus resulting in a possible reduction in the aggregate capital expenditure.
In circumstances like these, maintaining the balance between saving and investment – which is essential to achieving full employment – could require a level of negative real interest rates (that is, net of inflation), that monetary policy cannot deliver. Nominal interest rates, in fact, are now close to zero and the increase in prices is minimal.