Just as America proved to be such a safe haven for immigrants in the latter 19^th and early 20^th centuries, it is now seen as a safe haven for wealth attempting to escape Europe’s tax collectors and financial chaos and recession in Europe, and for foreign central banks newly enamored of the dollar.

America, of course, is not the only safe haven, safety being a relative term. Rich Italians, Greeks, and Spaniards are pouring hundreds of millions of euros into pound-denominated properties in London. Other nervous Europeans are taking their euros to Germany, the Netherlands, or Switzerland. John Makin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, notes that “investors are so desperate for safety that they are willing to accept virtual zero returns on ‘safe’ (U.S., German) short-term sovereign notes.” With so much capital flowing into super-safe treasury IOUs, interest rates on U.S. ten-year bonds have fallen to only 1.5 percent, half what they were a year ago. In real terms (adjusting for inflation), yields are negative.