Low real long-term rates mean that any long-term asset that pays, say, $100 a year in real terms would have been worth a real $1,429 in 1984, when it yielded 7%, but would have to be worth a real $5,000 now, when it yields just 2%. A decline in long-term rates of such magnitude would thus appear to imply massive price inflation for real assets, justifying the high prices we are in fact seeing.