ABSTRACT
In the spring of 2012, as usual, the German government was able to raise funds by selling
bonds to private savers. What was unusual at that time was that the bonds the government
sold offered an interest rate of 0 percent. At the time, savers were so nervous about the
potential losses that they effectively were willing, in the words of one market analyst, “to
park their funds in Germany in exchange for no rate of return whatsoever.”
