Isn't the real reason interest rates are so low is to avoid US government from defaulting on $18 trillion debt?

No. The reason the interest rates are so low is to postpone the reckoning with the horrible truth about our economy, which is that we are rapidly sliding toward a plutocratic oligarchy, where the wealthy continue to accumulate, most of what's left of the middle class gets squeezed out, and the poor do their best to cobble together part time jobs and social services and try to stay out of the prison system.

In an ideal economy, low interest rates spur borrowing and spending, and entrepreneurial activity, since the low cost of money lowers the risks involved.

Unfortunately, the downsizing and financial crises of the last few years have pretty much terrified the general public, who have seen the problems caused by debt, and are extremely reluctant to incur much more of it.

Further still, the public isn't spending all that much, making the consumer goods companies a bit nervous. (See, e.g. McDonalds, and even Wal-Mart, 7 members of whose owning family owns more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans combined.)

The way out of this would be a combination of guaranteed basic income, a higher minimum wage, and higher top marginal tax brackets, so that those folks who weren't in the top 1-2% of the economy would feel a little less fearful, and be more willing to spend on goods and services, thus boosting demand, and hiring, and the economy as a whole, allowing the average American to feel comfortable, while still profiting the plutocrats.

But that's all very complicated and reeks of socialism and class warfare, so most folks outside of /r/basicincome aren't expecting much to happen.

This leaves those folks running the economy with interest rates as their only tool, and they just keep cutting them lower and lower, but the number of Americans outside the workforce remains near an all time high.

Some European countries have gotten so concerned about the situation, that their interest rates have gone negative.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-23/negative-interest-rates-may-spark-existential-crisis-for-cash

It'll be interesting to see how this places out, but the U.S. Debt is not a major factor here.

/r/personalfinance Thread