Yale’s Robert Shiller, the economist who foresaw the implosions of the tech bubble in 2000 and the housing market in 2007, is now closely watching a different asset class. This time, however, it is one that is in an early stage of bubble formation, not of collapse.
“This is my only bullish call that I'm making right now: It's farmland,” Shiller said last week.
Shiller delivered the keynote presentation at the IMCA 2011 annual conference in Las Vegas.
His prognosis for the economy was that a lack of motivation on the part of consumers to spend will impede recovery. Equity returns will be disappointing over the next decade, he said, and TIPS is the only other asset class he likes right now.
But for those who follow Shiller – he writes a regular column in the Sunday New York Times – farmland was the big surprise.
