I've been saying this for a while. There is simply a surplus of "forced buyers" for investments, so the price and yield has gone down and down, and there's no real reason why it can't be negative. The only next point is warehousing physical cash, which itself isn't cheap or liquid.
Individuals presented with this crisis could realise the problem, the disastrous future it implies, and turn to philanthropy. Institutions largely can't, and foreign oligarchs won't.
The US model of funding retirements is subsidizing (via tax breaks/structures) the middle class to buy into inflation beating assets (only stocks meet this really) or underfunding pensions that need to also beat inflation by buying into equities. There truly is “no alternative” to stocks and, to a lesser extent, real estate. These are the only two major asset classes which can provide sufficient returns to support a middle class or above lifestyle for a very large class of people who do not work or intend to not work in the near future.
Individuals presented with this crisis could realise the problem, the disastrous future it implies, and turn to philanthropy. Institutions largely can't, and foreign oligarchs won't.