Hacker News Reader

Barely.

In real terms US bills have returned 0.4%/yr over the last 120+ years

Seems to me Treasury bills meaningfully outpace inflation, on average: https://www.bauer.uh.edu/rsusmel/other/lrret1.htm. But I was talking about cash accounts, which typically pay lower interest rates than T-bills or CDs (as noted on the above link).

In the late 1990s my savings account at the EmigrantDirect was paying about 7% with inflation around 3%.

This was not a term deposit, but a regular account, either itself with check-writing privileges or linked to a checking account with 1-3 day transfers. I think MMFs with check-writing paid similar interest, although not 100% sure as I never put my money there. Those were cash accounts as I could withdraw any amount, up to 100% of the account any time without any penalties.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com