Colin--At close of business Tuesday, Nov 5th S&P 500 PE is 49.53 !!
S&P 500 = 915.39
S&P 500 Earnings as of June 2002 was $18.48 per share
This number is the core earnings number from
Standard & Poor's Earnings Page
Read
this article in Business Week and you will see how American companies are still trying to fool the investor with inflated earnings.
I don't undertand how anyone could invest in something when you can't believe the numbers.