Again: What in the world is going on?

So all the money printing has now, finally, generated some inflation. Depending on how it’s measured and who’s measuring it, inflation currently seems to be running at three or four percent.

Well, in regard to stocks the dividend yield of the SP 500 is 1.35 percent; in regard to bonds, the yield on the benchmark ten-year treasury is 1.3 percent. CDs: less than one percent. Even highly speculative investments like junk bonds are not returning much more than three percent.

Relative to inflation these are all: NEGATIVE YIELDS. In other words, very few investments have positive yields in real (inflation-adjusted) terms. In other words, most investments will lose you money in real terms.

In other words, THE SYSTEM IS IN SOME KIND OF CRISIS. Maybe capitalism can survive a period of low returns. But it can’t survive an extended period of negative returns.