How The Market P/E Can Levitate

Economics writer Robert Samuelson is worried. Specifically, he's worried about why stock prices have risen so much in response to Donald Trump's election as U.S. President on 8 November 2016. In worrying, he not only conveys the conventional wisdom that seeks to explain the "Trump Rally" as some sort of outpouring of animal spirits linked to the promised policy changes that Donald Trump advocated on the 2016 campaign trail, but also zeroes in on the historically elevated price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of today's stock market.