The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that with a 5-per-cent yield, many Canadian investors went a bit loopy and decided to pull money out of stocks and plow it into GICs. The Globe's Tim Shufelt writes that was a mistake. Canadians invested billions into money markets and the like, making a superstar of the lowly guaranteed investment certificate. Many wondered why they should invest in risk assets, like stocks, at all. Cash ruled the investment world in 2023 -- but it never made much financial sense. "People got excited by what they thought was a guaranteed 5-per-cent return," said Benjamin Felix at PWL Capital. "But it wasn't as compelling as they were imagining." The problem is that the yields investors were rejoicing were nominal, in that they did not factor in inflation. Five per cent appeared generous by historical standards, after two decades of paltry payoffs for GICs and the like. After inflation, those yields were minimal, if not negative, for most of the past 18 months. While that money struggled to earn a positive real return after tax, the stock market made steady gains. The S&P/TSX Composite Index is up by 11 per cent over that time, while the Nasdaq Composite Index is up by 32 per cent.