Marfa şi banii: despre dobânzile negative
Stuff and dough: about negative interest rates

Summary/Abstract: There are situations in which law and economics have (apparently) different approaches to an aspect of everyday reality. In fact, they describe the same reality, but from different perspectives. This article analyzes the situation of the credit agreement in situations where the interest rate ends up (seeming to) be negative. At first glance a contradiction in terms, negative interest turns out to be a phenomenon that, although unlikely, is not impossible. This is proven by the situations in Japan of the “lost decade”, in the Eurozone after the economic crisis or in Switzerland in recent days. Combining economic reasoning with the legal norms governing loan and deposit contracts, the article provides an explanatory scheme for these phenomena. In this way, it helps lawyers to avoid the difficulties of qualifying contracts regarding sums of money.

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