Yet all is not well for fund managers and investors. Year after year the market has risen relentlessly, confounding even the experts. Each and every year since 1982 the Dow Industrials has ended the year at a higher level than where it began in January. During the 1990's and especially since 1995, that rise has been at double-digit levels. The experts make predictions at the beginning of the year only to become bewildered as the market smashes through their targets to much higher levels.
Politicians point to the stock market's rise as confirmation of the wisdom of their policies.
On Wall Street, economists and analysts are left with the task of explaining the gold rush in the financial markets. It is hard to believe that less than one hundred years ago, the landscape of America was rural. In the nineteenth century, America was unified by the technology of transportation. Railroads criss-crossed our continent, making travel between the east and west coasts a reality. The infrastructure was being laid, along with the tracks, for the U.S. to begin the twentieth century as an emerging industrial giant.