An investment in an index fund, such as the Vanguard 500 in 1987 would have grown from $30 per share to $132 today--plus provided a 1.5% dividend per year.  Those baby boomers who have maxed out their 401K's over their working lives are going to be fine in their retirement years, due to straightforward investments such as these, left alone in their accounts, not taxed until withdrawal after 65.  The long term return on these simple index investments is 10% per year, and investors who have done this have done unbelievably well--and that includes the impact of an economic setback in 2000 of the tech crash, 9/11 and the Iraqi war.

I'm not sure what you are getting at with your heldging comment, but people are hedging everyday on many transactions simply because they want to take financial risk out of their life--farmers, business people, investors.  If you want to lock in a payment being made to you in Euro's in 6 months, lock it in in dollar terms because you are a US citizen,,you can do that--and not worry about hoping the Euro is still worth the same as today in 6 months.  On the other hand if you think the euro will be stronger and you want to take that risk, you can just wait and see what happens.  to me, it's all about having those choices--and it's certainly been a good thing for me in the past.