That leaves fixed income, and U.S. bonds have zero returns, so where do you park a million dollars without losing it?
There is high unemployment and ordinary savers are getting close to zero returns, while many young people and not so young people are crushed by non-dischargeable student debt.
FORBES: Should We Care About Romney's Unreleased Tax Returns ?
In conclusion, Romney might have some zero tax returns either by accident or on purposes.
FORBES: Some Zero Tax Romney Returns Would Be As Shocking As Gambling At Rick's
By pegging nominal interest rates at artificially low levels, the Fed is penalizing millions of people who have their assets in saving accounts or money market funds and are getting near zero nominal returns.
But with the average rate on a savings account at 0.24 percent, on a money market account at 0.22 percent, and on a 1-year CD at 0.53 percent, nominal returns are close to zero, and real returns are negative even at relatively low rates of inflation.
Under a performance-share plan launched in 2007, executive officers get no shares if Lilly investors see zero or negative returns over a three-year period.
The process stops at the point where all assets, on a maturity- and risk-adjusted basis, are priced to achieve probable returns near zero.
For many, the promised returns are zero or negative.
FORBES: Social Security Personal Accounts And The Financial Crisis
Tax defiers--or "tax protesters" as they've traditionally been known--glom onto one kooky, discredited theory or another as to why the income tax is illegal or doesn't apply to them personally or doesn't cover their normal sources of income. (Example: Only foreign income, or only earnings of federal employees are taxable.) They typically file returns showing zero income or simply stop filing.
In 1960 only 15% of federal income tax returns had a zero tax liability, due mostly to low taxable income, a standard deduction, the personal exemption, the dependent exemption, and the Earned Income Tax Credit (a direct subsidy to people for being poor).
FORBES: Representation Without Taxation - So Where's the Outrage?
There was even a Nobel awarded (Sir James Mirrlees) for pointing out that the optimal tax on returns to capital is zero.
The new book briefly returns to "year zero" of the global plague.
Of course, in a zero interest rate world where interest returns have dropped close to traditionally low Japanese levels in the U.S. and elsewhere, Japan at present does not have much of a competitive disadvantage.
FORBES: Is The U.S. Economy Turning Japanese? Gary Shilling's View
In some cases, investors could lose principal, or they may find that low or negative market returns add a big fat zero to their initial deposit.
Expected returns for shorter horizons are near zero or negative, but are associated with greater potential variability.
With interest rates being held near zero, equities are the last bastion of positive real returns for scores of investors.
With fiat currencies being printed, short-term interest rates near the zero-bound, and real interest rates providing negative expected returns, investors have been incentivized to chase higher returns on equities and invest in real assets.
FORBES: After The Gold Rush -- Commodities Prices: Why So High?
In contrast to the stock market, which over long periods offers positive returns linked to the growth in the economy, commodity trading is a zero-sum game.
Sure, bonds have generated strong returns since then but that is partly because interest rates have been on a steady downward slope to zero, pushing up the value of bonds even as each new crop yields less.
FORBES: Lerach Blames Pension Woes On Pay-To-Play -- Theirs, Not His
应用推荐