Free Republic

The stock market currently is even more overvalued than it was at the bull market peaks of both March 2000 and October 2007 -- according to not just one, but two, valuation measures. That at least is the message of an analysis released earlier this week by Ned Davis Research, the quantitative research firm. What caught my eye in the firm's analysis was that, unlike virtually all others that conclude that stocks are overvalued, this one was not based on the so-called Shiller P/E -- the cyclically-adjusted P/E ratio championed by Nobel laureate Robert Shiller of Yale University. That's noteworthy,...

More and more Americans are going to college, but that doesn’t mean they’re learning valuable skills or improving the economy. Professor X on the ridiculous premium placed on a B.A. in this country. Is there really such a thing as a "college premium," the increase in earnings over a lifetime that one can expect to get with a college degree? A recent report, “The College Payoff,” examines the data and not surprisingly answers the question resoundingly in the affirmative. I say "not surprisingly" because the study was sponsored by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. What possible...

Don't say we didn't warn you. In January 2006, CNNMoney published a ranking of 299 U.S. housing markets, showing where home prices were most overvalued. Little was undervalued: Real estate was white-hot and prices were at or near what later proved to be their tops ( see here : http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/29/real_estate/buying_selling/handicapping_housing_markets/index.htm ) A total of 213 cities were overpriced, and Naples, Fla., was deemed the most insane, with 84% of homes valued over a fair market price, according to statistics compiled by National City Corp. and IHS Global Insight. That finding so rankled the Naples Chamber of Commerce and area real...