Cat:
"Seriously though.....10 years ago a 10 yr US Treasury yielded 6%"......Ah.....seriously, no.
The actual yield on the 10 yr US Treasury in April 2007 was 4.69%.* 

Not that it matters because if you went back 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years, you'd find similar kinds of stocks making that same top ten, highest-return list.  

*Source: http://www.multpl.com/10-year-treasury-rate/table/by-month

SFI

P.S. Some studies go back as far as the 1860s and all come to the same conclusion. That is that dividend paying stocks outperform the market. And companies that consistently raise their dividends perform even better, at the very top of the heap. In all interest rate environments---flat, rising or falling.