Originally Posted by aceventura3

Are you correlating stock price returns with relative industry performance and making a judgment about excessive profits? During the past ten years we have had two major stock market declines due to the Dot Com bubble and the real estate/financial sector bubble. An investment in 6 month CD's over the past 10 years would have given you an average return of 3.3% which would have ranked 17 on your chart.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releas.../H15_CD_M6.txt

A 10 year Treasury Bond purchased in 2000 would have given you a return of 6.3%, rank 11 on your list.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releas...TCMNOM_Y10.txt

You could have invested in Baa corporate bonds (corporate bonds out performing corporate stock is unusual for a 10 year period) and got about a 7% return over 10 years.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releas...H15_BAA_NA.txt

All of this tells us nothing other than the obvious. The past 10 years has not been good for equity investments. Your chart conveniently does not go beyond 10 years, which would show a very different picture. I still don't agree with your conclusion. My confusion on your initial point is due to my failure to see a connection between returns on investment in the stock price to the industry being unfairly profitable.