I also wonder if revealing the fact I’ve looked at job listings might hurt my standing.
If honesty isn't the best policy you can always work in that while looking into that company you noticed that they have no one in your role and in fact is actually hiring their first. You don't have to mention where and how you found it, people will probably assumed you used a search engine.
Really good.
You are quite right in describing the zero interest rate as central banks taking the foot of the brake. Similar to how a brake can decrease speed but not increase it, the interest rate can destroy demand but not create economic activity.
The reason for not using tried and effective method of Keynesian spending is of course ideological. In the euro zone it was ruthlessly enforced by the ECB and the Commission were the deficits created by automatic stabilisers were taken as breaking the Maastricht treaty and those countries had to be put through austerity.