Outline for investigation

Japan has an interest rate of -.10

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/interest-rate
European Central Bank, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland
http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-economic-prospects/specialanalysis/Global-Economic-Prospects-June-2015-negative-interest-rates
central banks looking to use negative rates to stimulate the economy. The hope is that by
making savers pay to deposit money they will, instead, spend it.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/02/16/will-the-public-react-to-negativerates-with-safes-mattresses/

I dont think weve seen the last of this trend, said Jes Asmussen, chief economist for
Denmark at lender Handelsbanken. When I trained as an economist, negative rates werent
in the textbooks. But thats the world we live in now, and it hasnt stopped turning, he said.
Europes negative-rate adventure has only just begun, and it is far from clear how it will
end. The ECBs negative deposit rate has helped bring down the value of the euro, a good
thing for European exporters as their goods are less expensive for overseas buyers. But
Europes economy still musters only meager growth. And inflation is still stuck near zero.
Denmark, by contrast, has had better success using negative rates to stabilize its currency.
The rates helped beat back a flurry of speculative bets on an appreciating Danish krone,
themselves spurred by the ECBs rate-cutting moves. Growth in Denmark is comparatively
robust. The economy is expected to expand 1.6% this year.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/less-than-zero-living-with-negative-rates1449621094

some, its a bid to reinvigorate an economy with other options

exhausted. Others want to push foreigners to move their
money somewhere else

negative rates spread to a range of fixed-income securities. By the end of

2015, about a third of the debt issued by euro zone governments had
negative yields.
interest rates below zero should reduce borrowing costs for companies and
households
http://www.bloombergview.com/quicktake/negative-interest-rates

When an economy is struggling, it is standard practice for a central bank to cut

interest rates. That makes saving less attractive and borrowing more so, boosting
the amount of money being spent and kick-starting an economic recovery. But very
low inflation can make a central bank's life harder. Many big economies are now
experiencing deflation, where prices are falling. In the euro zone, for instance, the
main interest rate is at 0.05% but the "real" (or adjusted for inflation) interest rate is
considerably higher, at 0.65%, because euro-area inflation has dropped into
negative territory at -0.6%. If deflation gets worse then real interest rates will rise
even more, choking off recovery rather than giving it a lift. Desperate to avoid this
trap, ever more European central bankers have waded into the unfamiliar territory
of negative interest rates.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/02/economistexplains-15

Give examples of countries applying negative interest rates and end with the
questions, why are they applying negative interest rates?
Answer the question of negative interest rates and when they were first applied
Mention what the theory about how technically the lowest interest rate is zero