However, once you factor in inflation -- which runs at or around 2% depending on the country you live in -- you are making no money at the end of the year.
No, as a borrower, inflation works to your advantage.
i.e. I borrow $1k at 0% for one year. I put the money in a 1 year CD paying 1% interest. At the end of the year, I pay back the loan with the CD's principal, and put the $10 interest in my pocket.
Even if inflation were 2% (or 10%, or 100%), I am still making money - no matter how deflated the value of the dollar is, I still have more dollars in my pocket than when I started.
I covered the idea of putting the money into a CD in my comment. Even if you get a CD that returns %6, you'd need $400k in debt to raise the $20k.
Maybe mentioning gold is "politically incorrect" and so I'm getting down votes and disagreement, when the gist of my comment was talking about different ways you could arbitrage to raise money for a startup.
