A study of Federal Reserve policy has shown that savers have lost billions thanks to misguided actions by the Fed.
CNBC reports:
Various academic studies have shown that the low interest rates have pushed even more money into mattresses as savers have sought to make up for not getting returns by putting away more money. The overall savings rate went from 3.3 percent in 2006 to 5.2 percent in 2016, according to research from NerdWallet, a personal finance information site.
NerdWallet took those rates, then applied them to average disposable personal incomes and used as a baseline a $25,000 high-yielding account to figure how much savers have lost in the periods. All totaled, the site figures savers have lost about $7.7 billion during the decade, and those calculations include 2006, a year when the Fed was still actually raising rates.
The trend is unlikely to change soon. Even if the Fed gets back on the path to normalization, it probably will be years before savers see significant rewards.
