In our view, the most reliable estimate available is a total value of . corporations of times GNP, or times after-tax corporate earnings. This estimate is based on a detailed study of 135 industrial corporations done by Laurence Sloan and Associates (1936) at the Standard Statistics Company, a company that later merged with Poor’s Publishing to become Standard and Poor’s (S&P). The estimate we will use, however, is a total value of times GNP (or 19 times after-tax corporate earnings). This estimate is based on the price-earnings ratio of the S&P composite stock index. Because we are evaluating Fisher’s claim that the stock market.
