I recently saw this article in the Wall Street Journal. It seems that many are suggesting that the Fed's near-zero interest rate policies are driving investors looking for decent returns to riskier assets that in the past could be had with less volatile portfolios.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pension-funds-pile-on-the-risk-just-to-get-a-reasonable-return-1464713013
Thoughts on what this means for investors? It begs the question...how much of the market's movement in the past couple of years has been based on sustainable economic growth, and how much has been based on easy money policies driving up asset prices, or some combination? I am not sure there is any way to know for sure.
I think the investors that are reaching for yield in this low interest rate environment are going to get burned at some point.
It seems like much of the market's movement has been based on accommodative Fed policies.
If the market's movement had been primarily based on sustainable economic growth, I doubt the Fed would be so hesitant to raise rates.