Within U.S. markets, Patel said she favors equities over fixed income. “I have three blend portfolios of fixed income and equities, and I’m near the low range in bonds because the absolute yield is low, prices are high and you’re very dependent on capital appreciation if interest rates go lower, and I don’t think that’s likely,” she said.

Add it up, and Patel concludes that U.S. economic growth is sustainable, and equities should benefit as a result. “Maybe absolute returns in the U.S over the next two to five years might be lower than what we’d like, but it will beat bonds and inflation, which I think will continue to be very low for the foreseeable future” she said.

Forget The U.S. And Look Overseas

“It doesn’t matter if stocks beat bonds, because if bonds don’t make much return, than beating them isn’t that great,” Yusko countered. “That’s this whole relative game. People call it TINA, or there is no alternative—stocks are good because bonds stink. That doesn’t work.

“Do we want to invest in a place with little growth and lots of debt, or do we want to invest in a place with lots of growth and less debt?”

Yusko believes the U.S. is in a secular decline as greater numbers of baby boomers retire, entitlement programs grow and U.S. debt increases to pay for those entitlements. “We can’t pay for these benefits, so our debt-to-GDP will keep going up. With a lot of debt you get low economic growth, and there’s no way out. Except through war.”

He called last year’s return on U.S. equities a “mirage.” “Companies took advantage of low interest rates to issue debt so they could buy back their stock. Their earnings didn’t change, but their earnings per share went up and people thought, ‘Oh, they must be worth more.’ But no one counted the number of shares to see that they really didn’t make more money. And that will reverse at some point when companies have to start paying off that debt or if they go bankrupt.”

That said, Yusko said there are pockets of opportunity in the U.S. “There are some great businesses in America like Google and Priceline that are leaders in their fields that you want to own,” he said.

But all in all, Yusko would rather invest elsewhere. For starters, he likes Japan. Hates the demographics of its aging population, but loves that Japanese stocks are dirt cheap.

“Japanese equities will do two to three times more than what U.S. equities will do over the next decade because you’re buying Japanese stocks at the lowest margins since 1969 and at trough multiples,” he said. “They’re the cheapest assets in the world’s developed markets versus buying U.S. equities at high multiples and margins,” he said