You only dance twice

“Financial markets are artificially priced. In the bond market, there is nothing normal about a three year German Bund yielding “minus” 10 basis points.” - William H. Gross, Janus Capital Group

Below summary by Anthony O'brien

Picture perfection or fairy tale endings do not describe the global economy or even its financial markets more than five years after its Minsky/Lehman moment. 

While U.S. bond and equity markets have been thrust into a seemingly safe outer orbit, the same cannot be said for other developed and developing nations. 

Many economies in turn have entered or are bordering on recessions with limited monetary firepower remaining to promote real growth. The dancing has begun to resemble the last stages of a 1920s cha cha dance off, with partners clinging to each other in a desperate attempt to keep from falling down. 

The upshot is that whatever your risk/return persuasion, whether it be stocks, bonds, real estate, or “other,” an “intelligent investor” (as first described by Benjamin Graham in the late 1940s) should be aware that returns almost necessarily cannot equal the magnificent returns of prior decades. 

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