>If real rates are still well in the negatives, why all the panic?<p>That's the panic.<p>Basically what happened is the boomers who are a large # of people have been moving their investments into the safe options. Namely bonds, mortgages, real estate. The governments, most likely due to selfish reasons, have signaled they will never let real estate crash. Many of the WW2 countries have gone to negative rates at least briefly to avoid the crash. The USA even went to 0% reserve ratio and tremendous money printing along the same as many other countries. They really won't let it happen it seems.<p>Add on top of this the set-in-stone reality of the 2030 worker shortage. There's only 1 way to prevent this, extreme mass migration of people. The USA's plan is to simply open the borders and let anyone in. That's the easiest solution I guess.<p>What the high inflation and negative real rates mean is those who are still working wont be able to retire soon but should benefit by still working. It's a sign of a new era, a new turning of the page. This is a panic to those who are on the verge of retirement and realizing they still can't for quite some time.