It's not enough to hand over your money to the government anymore.

Now you have to pay them for the privilege to do so.

That's the basic premise behind negative interest rates: investors around the world are crazy enough to buy government bonds whose yields are actually below zero.

In technical terms, this GUARANTEES that anyone who holds the bonds to maturity will lose money. It's genius!

What's truly remarkable is that the issuance of negative-yielding bonds is actually on the RISE once again.

From October through the end of January, the amount of negative yielding bonds in the world rose by 21% according to data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

In fact, nearly 23% of government bonds worldwide now have negative yields.

This is one of the many, many consequences of central banks keeping interest rates at historic lows for so long. They've destroyed the financial system to the point that almost nothing makes sense anymore.

Think about it– if you hold money in your bank account, you stand to earn a whopping 0.02%. Even with a "high-yield" savings account, you're lucky to earn half a percent.