“If you save money, you can buy bonds, you can buy a farm, you can buy an apartment/house — or you can buy a part of an American business,” Buffett said in February. “And if you buy a 10-year bond now, you’re paying over 40 times earnings for something whose earnings can’t grow. You compare that to buying equities, good businesses, I don’t think there’s any comparison.”
A 10-year government bond opened the day at a 2.32 percent interest rate and closed at 2.49 percent on Feb. 27, 2017, when Buffett made the comment. As of Dec. 17, 2018, the 10-year government bond had an interest rate of 2.87 percent.
Meanwhile, the benchmark S&P 500 Index has averaged an annual return of 10.2 percent over the past 30 years, according to FactSet.