Gorton, Gary; Lewellen, Stefan; Metrick, Andrew - In: American Economic Review 102 (2012) 3, pp. 101-06
We document that the percentage of all U.S. assets that are "safe" has remained stable at about 33 percent since 1952. This stable ratio is a rare example of calm in a rapidly changing financial world. Over the same time period, the ratio of U.S. assets to GDP has increased by a factor of 2.5,...