Thanks for an interesting post. Now, I wonder, is there any reason other than irrational exuberance that there might be an aweful lot of money in the stock market? So much that historic notions of reasonable P/E ratios no longer make sense? I could be wrong about this, but in the 1970's people usually had pensions for retirement but over the course of the 1980's that started to change:

In 1978, Congress amended the Internal Revenue Code, later called section 401(k), whereby employees are not taxed on income they choose to receive as deferred compensation rather than direct compensation.[2] The law went into effect on January 1, 1980,[2] and by 1983 almost half of large firms were either offering a 401(k) plan or considering doing so.[2] By 1984 there were 17,303 companies offering 401(k) plans.[2] Also in 1984, Congress passed legislation requiring nondiscrimination testing, to make sure that the plans did not discriminate in favor of highly paid employees more than a certain allowable amount.[2] In 1998, Congress passed legislation that allowed employers to have all employees contribute a certain amount into a 401(k) plan unless the employee expressly elects not to contribute.[2] By 2003, there were 438,000 companies with 401(k) plans.[2]

RE: Remembering a Classic Investing Theory - New York Times