No, it is not some whizzy tech stock, or E&P explorer that claims to have found 4bn barrels of oil in country torn apart by civil war, but the S&P 500.
H/T to reader Carlomagno for this.
(Data from Barrons).
And in (slightly out of date) graphical form.
(Chart from Ned Data Research).
Now, it is important to note the above is based on reported and not forecast earnings. As we all know 2008 was not a good year and if earnings recover this year the PE will fall back. But the point here is that earnings will have to recover very, very sharply indeed for the PE to approach anything like normality. Of course, banks making money and not taking massive writedowns will help, but it is still a long way back from 130 times.