In the last 10 years, the typical taxable money market fund yielded 3.39%. Inflation was 3.4% a year (using the CPI index.) After paying tax on this income at a 25% rate, say, the hapless investor was left with 25% less capital than he started with. Stocks did worse. A major equity index provided 0.72% a year, which was worse than the money market fund. Bond returns were about 4.5%, taxable. After paying taxes, that gave no real return either. Commercial real estate was the best investment, providing something like 8.7% a year (lately falling into disrepair.) If the economy … Continue reading The negative return economy