The high cost of Wall Street

U.S. stocks are far more expensive than their international peers when measured in terms of how their share prices compare to their average earnings over the past 10 years. This ratio, known as the cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, or CAPE, shows U.S. stocks have reached levels not far off their peak of 43 during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. (CAPE ratio)