The simplest definition of financial repression is policy-induced nominal interestrates out the yield curve beneath nominal GDP growth, i.e. pushing the returnsto savers negative.
It’s a fiscal policy choice: an implicit tax on savings, keeping funding costs low,rather than increasing regular taxes or cutting entitlements.Financial repression is the policy distortion of markets. The regulatorycontrols of 1953-79were dismantled over the subsequent decades. The currentperiod of financial repression is being achieved principally by monetary policy.