I was reading a biography of Julian Robertson (Tiger Fund) recently, and in it is mentioned his investment in Ford - with a P/E of 4, and half the market cap of the company in cash. This was in 1987 when the economic outlook was fine going forward. Why can't there be blue chips nowadays that sell for effectively 2 times earnings? Even in 2002/03 I don't recall any major blue chip selling remotely as cheap as that!