The reality is that those kinds of gains were nearly double the norm of the last 75 years and at some point the numbers had to return to normal. Now they have . . . Last year's returns were subpar or submarine, depending upon which index you were looking at, and the slide has continued over the past nine weeks. All of this supposedly is in response to the severe business slowdown now under way. We find this baffling.
Economic cycles are a given.
Periods of exuberance are inevitably followed by periods of moderation. The longer and more robust the former, the more likely the latter. This is not exactly news. Yet the market's recent performance suggests that what's happening in Corporate America is an event of earthshaking proportion. Quite the contrary.