I hate to play Devil's Advocate here but I want to give the doomsayers of the past 18months or so some more scope to look around for reasons why the bullish nature of global equities doesn't necessarily have to be all hype and that the billions of billions that gets invested globally everyday isn't necessarily done so by stupid people with you guys being the sane ones who see it as a load of 'smoke and mirrors'
Firstly, people tend to forget, even just a handful of years after the event, just how bad severe market corrections are. I'm not focusing on US equities/economics specifically here but just take a look how long it has taken the DJ to recouperate from the mini nightmare at the teurn of the millenium. I think this is a case where people would rather not get burnt by watchiing their investment go to the moon, only to watch it come crashing back, which blindsides you from making any money. I suppose this is just the same as the old 'climbing the wall of worry' phrase. Basically, all I am trying to say here is that people waste too much time saying 'this wont last' because they are subconsciously harbouring reminders of 1987/2000 which prevents you from even contemplating that this run up in equities is a) no historical freak or over-reaction compared to prior market runs b) might have genuine merit
Secondly, getting onto the genuine merit part from above....
I want to offer you the following food for thought (and none of this is any indication of my bias) which may make you think twice about continually trying to pick tops or tell the rest of the world that they have gone mad:
1. Economic/Industrial Expansion in present day gives fair reasoning for bullish equities.
When the US went through its economic expansion phase, you guys had almost a decade of happy times where you couldn't lose money if you tried. Same too for Japan. Now, when you add the population of Japan and the US together you end up with about 3.7% of global population. If you add together the population of China and India (and ignore the fact that Japan is now back on the agenda also) you get somewhere near 40% of global population. That's a lot of roads to build, buildings to construct, mouths to feed, cheap labour coming online.... blah blah blah.... and in 20 years, they will be employing you to sew up footballs and they will be buying Apple Macs by the batchload.
2. Yes oil is important but the 'developed world' is not nearly as dependent upon it as back in the 70s so can you hand on heart say that $70-$100 fuel will break the bank for average Joe and result in inflation...... Jury still out on that to be honest, and 'second round affects' still to be pushed through even after 1yr+ of the world moaning about expensive oil.
3. If you had $1bn and you had to hide it in an asset somewhere, the menu of property v fixed interest v equities still points toward equities as the best performing asset i.e. that makes it not overpriced. Agreed, if interest rates start going much higher you might find bonds becoming more popular but you simply can't say that this is a likely scenario........ the bond market, full of the biggest players in the world don't think it will happen so why do you?
I know I am rabbling here but every time I hear about twin deficits and inflation, the same one sided story comes out i.e. the world has gone mad, and I think people need to start looking at the other side of the equation before smugly sitting back for another 3 years of market gains thinking they are right to stay out!
Again, the above is not my opinion, it's just what I see as the flipside to the constant one-sided arguments I see on here.