Negative interest rates are now seen as a tool available to monetary policymakers at times of very low inflation, but they remain controversial. On June 6, the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings held a day-long panel discussion that examined recent experiences with negative interest rates, particularly in Europe, and their possible use in the U.S. Participants included Miles Kimball, and other prominent economists from European central banks and Wall Street, as well as several academics, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

More about Kimball looks at effective lower bounds for negative interest rates >