All this shifting of wealth is a zero-sum game and the net effect on incomes is usually zero, or even negative.

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Meanwhile, in the South, watch for a zero-income-tax domino effect.

WSJ: Laffer and Moore: The Red-State Path to Prosperity

The Federal Reserve, having lowered short-term interest rates in effect to zero, has intervened in bond markets to push down long-term mortgage rates as well.

ECONOMIST: The economy

Since some of this debt is due for repayment next year, the Bank of England has a deadline for deciding whether to roll it over into a perpetual zero-interest debt - which would be seen as, in effect, writing off the debt.

BBC: Turner: Time for helicopter money?

Among economic historians there is a growing consensus that guilds in Europe lost their ability to block new technology once society realised that innovation had a beneficial effect on humanity, and was thus not a zero-sum game.

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Bankers concede to me that - in these more anxious times - they can't be certain that the downgrades will have zero effect on their ability to borrow.

BBC: Downgraded UK banks, bonuses and Bank of England support

Proponents of the minimum wage such as John Schmitt, a senior fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, like to argue that the mean effect of the minimum wage on jobs for low-skilled workers is close to zero.

FORBES: The Minimum Wage Delusion, And The Death Of Common Sense