Morgan Stanley CEO Says the Era of Zero Interest Rates and Zero Inflation ‘is Over’

The days of easy money and zero interest rates are firmly in the past, Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said, speaking at a panel of finance CEOs in Riyadh on Tuesday.

by Natasha Turak
CNBC.com

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The days of easy money and zero interest rates are firmly in the past, Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said Tuesday, speaking at a panel of finance CEOs in Riyadh.

“The end of financial repression, of zero interest rates and zero inflation, that era is over. Interest rates will be higher, will be challenged around the world. And the end of ‘the end of history’ — geopolitics are back and will be part of the challenge for decades to come,” Pick said, referencing the famous 1992 Francis Fukuyama book, “The End of History and the Last Man,” which argued that conflicts between nations and ideologies were a thing of the past with the ending of the Cold War.

Repressed rates and easy monetary policy have been in the rearview mirror since 2022, when — after slashing rates to near zero to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic — the Federal Reserve cranked its benchmark rate up by around 500 basis points over the course of 18 months.

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