There are plenty of commentators who want to see market value in...

There are plenty of commentators who want to see market value in historic terms, so they say the market is correcting back to historic relativity levels and has been too high.

Ask the question - Why have the indexes outpaced GDP and productivity not just during bubbles but over time? This is a consistent thing.

The answer is partly that the market is not just a measure of real economic growth in the underlying assets but a measure of sentiment in a place of capital growth. People invest because markets are growing and sell because they fear markets will fall. Capital has grown as share values have grown. It is simplistic to assume shareholders invest in business propositions - they invest in capital growth which is fuelled by sentiment and availability of investment funds. Real performance of companies are merely catalysts or indicators.