Negative rates do indeed exist in the real world. Central banks, for
example, have set their very short-term rates negative to deter savings
(depositor pays bank to save rather than the bank paying the depositor) and
encourage credit growth and reduce longer-term rates (lending or investing
in longer-term instruments). Of course, you won't get a negative-rate
mortgage, this scheme is focused on money-center banks, not retail
consumers. In other places like the commodity markets, you can also see
negatives for things you might not expect. Oil prices were driven negative
for a short time when there was no excess shipping capacity and the cost of
shipping hyperinflated.

On Tue, Dec 10, 2024 at 8:23 AM Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

> > Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:44:04 +0800
> > From: Ting Boon Ghee <tingbg@gmail.com>
> >
> > Using Calc to compute the rate of return on an investment, negative
> returns will result in error.
>
> Isn't it true that in the financial world there are no negative rates,
> only positive rates written in red color?  Maybe this explains what
> you see?
>
>
>
>