For those interested, below we provide a table highlighting the performance of key ETFs across all asset classes over the last month, 6 months, and year. Over the last year, just three ETFs shown are down -- Natural Gas (UNG) at -48%, 7-10 Year Treasuries (IEF) at -4%, and 20+ Year Treasuries (TLT) at -13%. The best performing ETF shown over the last year has been Russia (RSX) with a gain of 175%. India (INP) ranks second with a gain of 165%, and the Financial sector ETF (XLF) ranks third with a gain of 144%. Also worth noting is that the S&P 500 equalweight ETF (RSP) is up 102% over the past year, while the cap-weighted S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is up just 68%.

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Interlaced with our latest financial panic is a growing sense of unease in the United States. There is a general, unnamed feeling that things are no longer getting better, that living standards are falling, and the thought is entertained that our children might not have better living standards than ourselves. The failure of major U.S. auto makers and the rise of the Rust Belt are concrete manifestations of things not as they should be. I am now going to give a name to this general sense of unease concerning living standards and labor competitiveness in the United States.

After World War II, half the world’s population took itself out of the global market for providing goods and services. China, India, Russia, and Eastern Europe (not by choice) took up either communism or heavy socialism and took themselves out of the game of providing global goods and services. Fresh off its victories in World War II and largely recovered from the Great Depression, the United States entered a golden age where its auto, computer, and consumer goods companies dominated the world stage. The heady mix of new technology and a playing field where half the teams had left the field, put U.S. labor markets in a constant state of the demand for labor shifting to the right. The ability to make a quality car was a value added proposition that allowed the Big 3 to offer 6 figure salaries (in today’s dollars) to the high school graduates that manned their assembly lines.

Gaining long-term perspective on country fund investing is hampered by the lack of long-term existence of some of the funds. Fortunately, MSCI publishes country index total return figures that go back ten years or more — longer than some of the country funds have been around.

These three charts present the total return (including distributions, but before taxes) for 30 of the countries for which there are country fund ETFs or CEFs. They are as of February 26 and show the 1-day, 1-month, 3-months, YTD, 1-year, 3-year, 5-year and 10-year total return for each country index.