alt Hacker NewsI think it's so obvious that no testing is needed, but generally I don't disagree with your take.
The thing is one really needs to understand what "real yields" mean when investing in bonds, i.e. it means your purchasing power with respect to cheap commodities tracked by the CPI is preserved, but it doesn't necessarily mean "value" (whatever that means in the abstract) is retained.
> it means your purchasing power with respect to cheap commodities tracked by the CPI is preserved
CPI isn't a measure of commodities. And "CPI" is a bit of shorthand, given there are pretty much as many measures of consumer and producer prices as there are economists.
> it doesn't necessarily mean "value" (whatever that means in the abstract) is retained
This is what any measure of inflation ultimately seeks to measure. Purchasing power is intrinsically tied to the basket of goods and services its measuring. That basket varies across people and time as preferences vary.