Link to article at WSJ:
Link to my blog where I made the following comments on it:
Another excellent op-ed piece by Burton Malkiel, author of the classic "A Random Walk Down Wall Street".
Malkiel makes the following points (summarized - but you should really read the article):
Bonds, especially US and Europe, are not positioned to do very well in the future
Stocks, especially the US and Emerging Markets are
Emerging Markets, in general but especially Brazil and China and even India look good (natural resources, demographics, etc)
Single-family houses in the US are less expensive and with ultra-low mortgage rates (see "Bonds" above -- a mortgage is the opposite side of buying a bond - it's borrowing rather than lending!) look good. ("Housing affordability has never been better." Though, of course, that's contingent on good credit and probably a job.)
Costs matter - this was the final paragraph and it's always worth repeating: "Control the thing you can control -- minimize investment costs. That is especially important in a low-return environment. Make low-cost index mutual funds or ETFs the core of your portfolio and ensure that any actively-managed investment funds you purchase are low-expense as well."