You will not be "shepherded". You will be "forced". Retirement plans of all types, 401k, IRA, pensions, etc, employer sponsored and individual, is the target. Unlike Argentina only a partial confiscation, oh happy days. First Uncle Ben guarantees an awesome rate, maybe 3% guaranteed for life, oh happy days! Then some precentage of the account will be required to participate. Of course there will be significant dis-incentive and penalty not to play; taxing authorities have tremendous power over behavior. And there will be minimum annual participation to ensure everyone who wants a secure retirement properly takes advantage of the designed and guaranteed path of lifetime wealth accumlation.
The idea that US Treasuries are not risky aside, investors are already heading toward quality.. been following gold the last 2 years? The stock bubble will burst when investors are satisfied that there is no more significant quantitative easing or other forms of inflated money supply on the horizon. And when it drops, we'll be on a slope to test the previous low.
Silly me. Shepherding us out of the stock market to support treasuries wouldn't be good for our psyches. Shepherding us out of commodities on the other hand... Time to support Geithner's strong dollar policy.
That worked out nicely. But now I have no ideas about what happens next, not even crazy ones. Continuation of the commodity sell off? Summer stagnation in all markets? Anyone else have a guess?
I'm guessing that replying to yourself is a faux pas here. Bad etiquette. Gauche. Oh well. In answer to myself, what's next is just the age old game of sector rotation. We sheep can graze peacefully right where we are for a while yet. Oh look, a shiny nickel.