Because capital is usually, and legitimately, a small percentage of assets, capital can easily go to zero and a perfectly sound institution can be declared insolvent and taken over by its insurer or some other government agencies.

FORBES: Magazine Article

By 2022, says one of the authors, return on assets will hit zero.

FORBES: The Digital, Free Market Fall of America

"The BOJ will pursue powerful monetary easing by maintaining virtually zero interest rates and purchases of financial assets as long as it deems appropriate, " the statement said.

BBC: Japan agrees 2% inflation target and asset purchases

OK, but if the Fed were to zero out IOR, how would it know the right amount of assets to sell?

FORBES: Hey, Ben Bernanke, How About A Return To Normalcy?

More remarkable than the amount of Japanese household financial assets is their structure: 60 percent are in essentially zero-yield bank deposits.

FORBES: Japanese Savers and the JGB Market

It can be done, but it takes huge open market purchases of assets to move the economy much once the Fed funds rate is more or less at zero.

FORBES: Miles Kimball on QE

By pegging nominal interest rates at artificially low levels, the Fed is penalizing millions of people who have their assets in saving accounts or money market funds and are getting near zero nominal returns.

FORBES: The Federal Reserve's Crony Capitalism

This public pension fund is exceptional both in having zero turnover of investment advisors, using a single money manager to oversee 100% of its assets for the past 40 years, and in changing auditors every couple of years.

FORBES: New Red Flags Related to Tampa Firefighters and Police Pension "Audited" Financials