The progressive issue many progressives don't seem to like

[cthulu2016]

96. People with impaired balance sheets

"People with impaired balance sheets are not interested in increasing their borrowing at any interest rate."

Your idea of "any interest rate" seems to suffer from a lack of imagination.

Any rational actor will borrow at some interest rate, even if they have nothing they want to do with the money.

If you offer me an interest free loan of a million dollars right now I will take it without hesitation, no matter what my balance sheet looks like.

Now, say that inflation is 5% higher than it is today. Would I borrow that million at 4% interest? It's an even better deal than the interest free loan was.

It is wrong-headed to say, "Look, the Fed is printing money but nobody wants it, so printing money doesn't work." The fact that nobody wants it is not a surprise or a refutation of 20th century economics. It is a normal and predicted circumstance.

A mortgage at 4% is, in this environment, too high. A Fed Funds rate of 0% is too high.

That's why people are not "buying" money... it is too expensive. At a lower cost people will gladly "buy" money. And the only way the cost can possibly be lower is if we catch a break and see some inflation.