It doesn't look like much, but a boxy wooden vintage Swedish footstool isn't just a place to rest your weary feet after cross-country skiing. It is the latest competition to hedge funds or high end real estate. And that means it will cost you $17,000.
A global glut of cheap money is prompting investors to take unprecedented risks in order to earn returns. From the United States to the 19-country euro zone, central banks have lowered interest rates to zero since the financial crisis started in 2007 and still haven't been able to raise them back.
Nearly a decade of free money helped these countries through the worst of the crisis, but at a heavy cost for savers, sapping earnings from traditional investments such as bonds and pushing many to look at riskier, unconventional alternatives.
Interest in hedge funds, property, paintings and wine has risen sharply.
This shift is pronounced in Sweden, a country where interest rates have long been at rock bottom. Bukowskis, a trendy Stockholm auction house, has seen rising demand for Swedish art and Scandinavian designer furniture.
The prices of humble-looking vintage carpets that capture the country's 1950s zeitgeist of social equality have risen more than ten-fold within five years. One sold for $82,000.
The $17,000 footstool is typical of the sort of minimalist, utilitarian furniture you might find at a Nordic summer cottage. For an extra $15,000, you can buy a small solid wood coffee table to go with it.
"Sales online in Sweden are exploding," said Paulina Sokolow, Bukowskis creative director. "The prices are really increasing. I don't think we've seen the peak."
Wine has been a big money maker. A 12-bottle case of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild from the 2000 vintage has risen in value from roughly $2,800 at the time to around $18,600 now. Bonus: whatever happens to prices, you can always drink it.
"The returns look attractive in the current climate," said Tom Gearing, managing director of Cult Wines, a British wine investment firm. "And if everything goes wrong, you are still going to have a tangible asset."
CASH HOARDING
Hans Peterson, chief investment strategist at Sweden's SEB bank, says many customers want new ways to invest.
"Clients are frustrated," he said. "It results in having to buy into cyclically sensitive assets such as equities, which can make those markets more volatile. People are also investing in property."
The soaring prices for Swedish footstools and rugs come in a country where property prices shot up by 36 percent since the end of 2013. The sale last year of a $12 million apartment in Stockholm set a new record, though it would barely be noticed in London or New York. The boom has been fuelled in part by tax breaks but also by Sweden's zero interest rate that turned negative in 2015.
A negative rate increases the cost to banks of hoarding cash, designed to fire up lending.
But this heady environment, especially after a recent stock-market swoon, looks vulnerable.
"Are the risks too high?" said Peterson. "Only time will tell."
The experience of Japan, which has been struggling through two "lost decades" of stagnation, provides a cautionary tale.
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