Advertising in the modern age is an extremely difficult task with all the clutter and noise. If you hadn’t noticed, it leaves many products experimenting with packaging in order to sell “new and improved.” The “easy pour spout”, for instance, became commonplace as if the old manner of detergent weren’t easy or comfortable to begin with. I seriously doubt that any single person ever failed to buy a product because they thought to themselves that it was difficult to get out. That was never the point, of course, as all the company wants to accomplish is to advertise “new and improved” regardless of whether you think it is either of those words.

There is more than a little condescension in the tactic, as the advertisers and producers know that people aren’t fooled, rather the purpose is to subconsciously interject the idea. My personal favorite in the genre is the “wide mouth beer can.”

Coors Light launches the industry’s first vented wide-mouth can. The built-in vent and a new 8-percent wider opening combine to produce a smoother pour and reduce the vacuum, or “glugging,” effect.

No beer drinker anywhere ever cursed the “glugging” effect, vowing never to buy another Coors Light until the problem had been sufficiently alleviated. Nor had any Bud Light drinkers decided they would switch to Coors’ version solely because of the reduced vacuum. It is absurd, but some very smart people think it effective regardless of that quotient.

The question is whether the same packaging farcicality is portable from wide mouth beer cans to monetary policy. I’m not joking. If you go to the Bank of Japan’s website, they have prepared a FAQ on what most are calling NIRP but what the Bank has itself dubbed, “Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE) with a Negative Interest Rate.” I was a little disappointed that the header for the piece didn’t vibrantly disclaim “new and improved monetary policy” with an “easy pour bank reserve format.” For a smoother monetary transition to portfolio effects and credit expansion, the BoJ has provided for an 8-percent wider virtual currency opening, creating a smoother financial flow to reduce any residual liquidity vacuum from the regular old QQE.

It truly is just that inane and bizarre. NIRP isn’t even NIRP, at least in any straightforward sense. Instead, the BoJ is using their equivalent of the IOER in order to enforce negative “reserve” rates – similar also to the ECB’s deposit account. But the new negative policy will only be applied in a three-tiered matrix. The first is the “Basic Balance” where a +0.1% rate will be paid on all existing “reserve” balances. A rate of 0.0% will be applied to “Macro Add-on Balances” that are reserve balances either required or byproducts of other monetary programs. The last, the only NIRP, is the “Policy-Rate Balance” that will capture any new reserves placed with BoJ due or not to more and more QQE.