It spread to the country's schools in 1994, when President Clinton's Gun-Free Schools Act required them to suspend for a year all students caught bringing guns on to their premises, and has been gathering momentum ever since, particularly after the gruesome killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado earlier this year.
Just like a junkie who requires ever-increasing doses of heroine to achieve the same high, the Fed has needed to take rates ever lower to boost the economy after its previous stimulants had faded.