At the trough of the last recession in 2009, major stock market indexes had dropped in half from their peak in 2007. These led many stock analysts to argue that bonds had outperformed stocks and also were safer investments. However, a report published by Morningstar Investment Management titled “Are Bonds Going to Outperform Stocks Over the Long Run? Not Likely” contradicted these analysts by comparing returns on stocks and bonds over periods of more than 40 years, and showing that stock returns easily beat those of bonds. Why would the argument that bonds perform better than stocks lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy if investors sell stocks and buy bonds? Which argument better reflects the theory of the tradeoff between risk and return?