The biggest bond gains in almost a decade have pushed returns on Treasuries above stocks over the past 30 years, the first time thats happened since before the Civil War. (...) The combination of a core U.S. inflation rate that has averaged 1.5 percent this year, the Federal Reserves decision to keep its target interest rate for overnight loans between banks near zero through 2013, slower economic growth and the highest savings rate since the global credit crisis have made bonds the best assets to own this year. Not only have bonds knocked stocks from their perch as the dominant long-term investment, their returns proved everyone from Bill Gross to Meredith Whitney and Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrong. The generation-long outperformance of bonds over stocks has been the biggest investment theme that everyone has just gotten plain wrong, Bianco said in an Oct. 26 telephone interview. Its such an ingrained idea in everyones head that such low yields should be shunned in favor of stocks, that no one wants to disrupt the idea, never mind the fact that it has been off.