What is the interest rate? Is it something that the RBI sets, or is it something inherent to the economy? If the latter, how does it originate? These are tricky questions, but understanding this key concept is particularly important for an income investor.
The interest rate of an economy is simply the price spread in the production structure.
That statement seems to be economist mumbo-jumbo, but bear with me for a while and it will start to make sense. Let’s dissect it in parts.
What is the production structure?
You’re probably reading this article on your tablet or phone. The device didn’t magically fall from the sky. It was produced. Probably in a factory in China, from where it was shipped to a distributor and eventually found its way into your hands. The factory making the device got the components from its suppliers, who in turn got their components from their suppliers and so on. That’s exactly what the production structure is, the system which converts producers’ goods into the consumer goods that you and I use in our daily lives.
Stages of production
Consumer good: iPhone 6s
First stage of production: iPhone 6s at the Apple store
Second stage of production: iPhone 6s at the Apple store’s warehouse/distributor
Third stage of production: iPhone 6s at Foxconn China
Fourth stage of production: iPhone 6s components for assembly
and so on…
You get the idea. At every stage, the iPhone 6s moves along the production structure and comes closer and closer to becoming a consumer good. Stated generically:
Putting some numbers in,
What happens if one stage has a higher price spread than another? An arbitrage opportunity arises, capital moves from the less profitable to the more profitable stage until the opportunity disappears. If the price spreads are better for one consumer good over another, arbitrage will again ensure that capital is moved until both the price spreads are uniform.
Gains to capitalists
The capitalists get their gains for waiting. They advance money in the present in order to receive money in the future. Their gain from waiting is interest, and their rate of return is the interest rate.
The interest rate of an economy is simply the price spread in the production structure.
While the RBI may proclaim repo rates, reverse repo rates and prime rates and keep tweaking them, they do not set interest rates. Interest rates are derived from the capitalists in an economy who advance capital in order to keep the production process going. The market is constantly determining the interest rate, moving capital across the production structure, ensuring that price spreads in an economy move towards an equilibrium.
Parting thought:
“Interest is the difference in the valuation of present goods and future goods; it is the discount in the valuation of future goods as against that of present goods.”
– Ludwig von Mises, economist