In the US, stocks have shown a strong trend for more than a century, growing by 6.75 per cent per year after inflation, with income reinvested. London’s Lombard Street Research points out there have been only 26 months in the past 140 years when the S&P 500 was further below this trend than it is now. All bar six, three each in 1932 and 1982, were caused by world wars.
