I am sincerely saddened to note I am a part of the problem. I am an intellectual, and I have forgotten the macroeconomics I had once known.
Dr. Krugman brought this painfully to my attention. Were the graphs really that simple? Was the reasoning really so straightforward? Surely this can't help explain the quagmire that we're beset to decode every time we listen to the news...
But yep, that's it. In fact, I think someone in my high school AP Macroeconomics class even asked the stupid question about what happens when the interest rate goes negative. Ahh, youthful naivete, I miss you.