Economists love the concept of opportunity cost because it gives you a the real long-term value of an investment or purchase in relative terms – which is really the only way to calculate value. On Wednesday the DOW hit 10,000 again. The US financial press did their part to ring the bell while the banking community celebrated the boost in perceived value and the increased likelihood that the public would buy their wares.

Fox News, like clockwork, has given former asshole president Bush credit for the recovery. (Skip to 3:00 in the video) “He took the bold moves and look where we are today..”.

John Authers in the Finanial Times is almost embarrassed on Thursday as he delivers the news of what a DOW 10K means in real, opportunity cost terms. If you invested in the DOW in 1999:

• Relative to emerging markets you’ve lost 80% of your money.
• Relative to gold you’ve lost 75% of your money.
• And even in dollar terms corrected for inflation (using the CPI) you’ve lost around 23% of your money.