MB and others:
New eras, new economies, new paradigms need new benchmarks:
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Benchmarks change
As times change, benchmarks come and go. The demise of the 30-year can be traced to an economy that has entered its 107-month of expansion, a record.
For years, government debt grew. But a recent surge in tax receipts fed by the expansion means the Treasury no longer needs to borrow money like it once did.
A parallel exists in the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average, loaded with older economy stocks such as General Electric (GE: Research, Estimates), General Motors (GM: Research, Estimates) and Alcoa (AA: Research, Estimates), has faced questions about its relevance. As a widely quoted index, the Dow competes with the Nasdaq composite, whose technology stocks are leading the economy's growth. In an effort to keep pace with the change, Dow Jones & Company (DJ: Research, Estimates), publisher of the index, last year added Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates) and Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates). The change gave the century-old index its first Nasdaq stocks.
The list goes on. Gold may no longer be the inflation hedge it once was. And rising oil prices may not be able to cripple the new economy the way it hamstrung consumers in the 1970s.
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