Special: Adam Tooze on Inflation and the Cost-of-Living Crisis
Jacobin Radio
00:00
Why Do We Use the Interest Rate?
In America, the vast majority of mortgages are fixed terms. Everywhere else in the world, interest rates adjust smoothly. If British mortgage rates go from one or two percent to eight or nine percent, people's housing costs triple. So why would you use a mechanism like this? This goes back to calculation debate territory in the early 1920s.
Play episode from 13:10
Transcript
