Agreed, it’s been a lousy “investment” for a long time.
Most of the rise in the last 6 or 7 years is just the dollar tanking against other currencies. I’m not a gold-bug as such, there is no rational reason to use gold as a proxy or anything, but I would like to see some sort of objective unit of account. How this can be done in the 21st century, I have no idea. What good is a 5 per cent bond when inflation is running 6? All those tables, graphs, and charts presuppose a some sort of rational substrate, at least I hope so. Inflation robs savers especially, and those on fixed incomes - the elderly in particular. Great way to spend retirement, watching ones’ savings evaporate, huh.
Hey, in Japan their bonds are only like sub 3 percent! Makes you scratch your head, wonder why anyone would buy them. I guess the yen is the reason, as they anticipate it going higher?
And the japanese probably like japanese stocks about as much as a root canal...
And every time they, japs, invest in foreign stocks, the market gains are eaten by the loss of currency values in the country they invest.
See how Japan got screwed from not trading fairly? They wound up with a rising currency. Imagine if your mortgage got more and more expensive? Same for biz loans. This is why I think China is going to get what’s coming.