Three great bull markets
1945 – 1968: the post-war boom
There were two major forces at work in the post-war surge in stock market returns. First, this was a strong period for growth amidst the US baby boom and productivity growth fuelled by a proliferating array of innovations. Supercharging this effect for investors was a decline in some of the perceived risks associated with owning companies – valuations rose.
By the mid-to-late 1960s, the bull market (where prices are rising) was running into the sand. The economic backdrop was turning decidedly less friendly. The quality growth stocks (those companies expected to grow sales and earnings at a faster rate than the market average) of the era were becoming too popular. The spectre of 1970s stagflation (a situation in which the inflation rate is high, the economic growth rate slows, and unemployment remains steadily high) loomed, garnished by multiple political and economic shocks.
1982 – 2008
Stock markets began their second post-war surge in the early 1980s. This was again fuelled by the march of productivity growth. However, the returns to the endless drip of inventions and their assimilation into the economy was supercharged this time by victory in the battle against inflation. Paul Volcker, legendary US central banker, was instrumental in this victory, raising interest rates to 20% in March 1980. Inflation expectations moderated sharply, and from then on inflation and interest rates operated at less eye-catching levels for much of the ensuing decade .
2009 - Present Anticipated 2034
Following the devastating global economic turmoil inflicted by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the stock market finally bottomed in early 2009. As usual, the stock market bottomed at a moment that did not feel like a very attractive moment to invest. In fact, if you could have seen in advance the societal and other turmoil that lay in the GFC’s wake, you certainly would have spent much of this bull market on the sidelines. The break-up of the European project, perpetual worries about government debt loads, a China crash, trade wars. However, the birth of a new cluster of technology titans, surfing the information revolution, provided much of the earnings fuel and valuation expansion provided the rest. It took an era defining pandemic to finally fell this bull.
The pattern in this post-war story may suggest that we are due a patch in the wilderness before notable direction returns. There is obviously no requirement for that to be the case. Many important aspects of the world already look unrecognisable from the decades that led up to this point. Rather than battling deflation (a decrease in the general price level of goods and services) with almost everything at their disposal, central bankers are now battling its opposite – desperately trying to put the genie back into the bottle.
This makes for a very different starting point for this new economic cycle compared to 2009. Then, corporate margins were low, as were valuations. The bond market offered returns that we only dream of today even after the violent sell-off year to date. Today, the opposite is mostly true – high margins, high valuations, and low interest rates mean that we should be ready for lower returns from this point.
However, that should be no cause for despondency. The main driver of returns is new technology and its useful assimilation into the wider economy. The best way to take advantage of this over the long term is to invest in companies which benefit. Most of the time, it is very hard to see in advance which sectors and geographies will triumph ahead of time. The answer to this is to make sure that you have the world working on behalf of your investments day and night, not just some recently successful part of it. Past performance really can be a very poor guide to the future.
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