The NYT took the time to point out that if you constructed a price weighted S.& P. 500, instead of the actual capitalization weighted index, it would be about 90 percent above its 2000 peak. This is interesting trivia, but not of any obvious relevance to anything.

It would have been far more reasonable for the NYT to construct an inflation adjusted index, which would show that the S. & P. 500 is still more than 20 percent below its early 2000 peak.

–Dean Baker

Dean Baker is senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Read more about Dean.