Raymond > If this were a decent world, Alan Greenspan would be in prison today for fraudulently persuading the American public to pay twenty years of really harsh taxes, only to see that the very thing that we were paying them for has been stolen from us
And what did you expect? That government should keep to its word?
Anyway, did you see this chart?
trendmacro.com
S&P PE ratios over time showing a PE of 25-30 at 2000-01.
That was then and the return on the index, in terms of earnings, was little enough, in fact, at a historic low. But, that's not the end of it. I defy you to find any record of actual earnings on the S&P for the past 2-3 years. I can't, and I have looked hard. Apparently, like any other embarrassing or potentially embarrassing statistic it has simply vanished. Today, the valuation of the S&P, or any other share, is based not on real earnings but on earnings estimates, which are made by analysts, whoever they are, and shares go up or down on the basis of whether reported earnings (which may not even be actual earnings) are greater or less than estimated earnings. How's that for a con? |
