[chrisseaton]

The US markets may feel artificially high to you, but a conventional modest-return, low-risk investment account that you can arrange with any high-street investment advisor is going to be extremely broad in their portfolio. The US markets that you think are inflated may comprise 5% or something of it. It'll also be invested in Asia, Africa, South America, and in different industries.

These kind of broad and boring investments always return about 5-10% or something like that a year. Occasionally they go down one year if there's a big bust up, but if you look over a ten year window it's always going up.

So why doesn't everyone invest in them if they're so dependable? Am I selling a get-rich-quick scheme? The reason is they're too modest for most people who are trying to get more like 15%. But those people take more risk - the kind of risk you're probably worried about.

And so why does the bank pay so little interest? Well they're getting that 5-10% from similar modest-return, low-risk investments (well probably a bit less less as they're more cautious)... and pocketing it.