The Market's Long, Strange Trip To Nowhere

You may have noticed this already, but the S&P 500 finished at the same level that it did exactly three years earlier on Monday. That's the day President Bush signed the $700 billion financial bailout bill into law. And when I say "finished at the same level," I mean, exactly the same price, down to the last two decimal places. In fact looking over the last four years, the market hasn't really moved much at all from one year to the next, has it?