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To: carranza2 who wrote (70924)	1/4/2009 10:58:16 AM
From: Maurice Winn	1 Recommendation Respond to of 74559

More than 1% after tax and after inflation is a reasonable return for individual retail investors, if it's also quite secure. <If individual investors cannot do better than 1% it is because they are lazy and not looking. > Swarms of NZers lost fortunes on finance company investments over the last couple of years. The leaflets used to arrive in our mail box, touting much higher interest than I was getting for my little Tonka Truckload of cash at ASB Bank, but I couldn't be bothered investigating them to see if the promised interest payments would be made. I assumed they carried more risk than I would consider risk worthy and I didn't even want to risk my time to check them out. Sure enough, they were like Madoff investment = too good to be true. Mqurice

To: carranza2 who wrote (70924)	1/4/2009 11:08:30 AM
From: Maurice Winn	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

I don't understand this: <Treasuries provide a modicum of safety > Isn't "treasuries" US$ by another name? Nor do I understand "risk premium" applied to shares as in "share dividends should be higher than returns on money because shares are more risky than holding money". How are shares more risky than money? Owning shares is betting on private property remaining in private ownership [taxation and regulation notwithstanding] and that shareholders will try to make a profit by hiring management and staff to do good things. Owning US$ is betting that the electorates and the politicians they hire will do sensible things with a goose laying golden eggs. Betting on electorates being sensible and betting on politicians to be reasonable is not a bet I like to take. Since I have for a decade been on a mission to replace the US$ and treasury, and their long term value is zero, I don't see how they are a good investment when people competing for the nominal returns value those returns so much higher than I do. I have held US$ for some time, but that's as an interim store of value transaction medium rather than thinking the interest rates are good. The risk premium should be on "treasuries" not on shares and other assets. If I had to shut my eyes and hold an asset for 30 years, I would choose gold over "treasuries". Mqurice