If they sense interest rates may rise, the returns on investment look less tempting.
Money from sales of 10-year or longer Treasury notes and bonds to euro-based investors doesn't necessarily have to return to that part of the curve –especially when everyone knows then when yields do rise the returns will be painfully negative.
But it was sort of a surprise to me that something like– as the fees for different financial services have risen, the return on invested capital has actually been declining since 1979 and is– I think you had it's now at 2% and it's still dropping.
But after that, the heat will rise, the snowbirds will return to cooler climes, and the tourists, except for dedicated desert campers, will stop coming.
In years when the annual inflation rate has been falling, the real return from American stocks has been 9.6%; in years when it has been rising, the real return has been minus 1.1%.
When it does wages will rise, eroding the return on capital.
"If wages can rise, then the return to inflation is good news," Nicholas Smith, Japan strategist at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, said in a recent research note.
"If wages can rise, then the return to inflation is good news," Nicholas Smith, Japan strategist at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, wrote in a recent research note.
Unemployment is likely to continue to rise, but the return of growth may allow Mr Brown to reap the credit for stabilising the banking system and averting a worse slump.
The sun rises, the swallows return to Capistrano and our moldering mountain of refuse grows higher.
