This should be a great time to own stocks. But we forget long-term lessons and think about the recent past.
When I started in this industry, 38 years ago, firms like Disney and DuPont ( DD - news - people ) sold at 40 times earnings. These were "one decision" stocks--supposedly so reliable that you could buy them and just put them away in a safe deposit box forever. This era of glamour stock investing was followed by a decade of negative returns. And then, just as most Americans had given up on stocks, there began an almost unparalleled 18-year run for stocks.
Buy [b]Enersis ( ENI - news - people ) ([/b]ENI, 21), LAN Airlines (LFL, 16), China Eastern Airlines (CEA, 36), United Microelectronics (UMC, 3.4), [b]Manpower ( MAN - news - people )'s ([/b]MAN, 56).
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