Perhaps the biggest headache for any investor is that no asset offers complete safety. Inflation gnaws away at cash; gold might offer protection but its price has soared so high that it feels less like insurance than chasing a hot trade. Rich-world government bonds are supposed to be havens, and have historically done better than cash at outpacing consumer prices. Just now, though, plenty of governments are borrowing so much that it is worryingly easy to imagine them letting the money-printers whir and inflating away their debt.
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