As stated: Normally, through most of the 20^th century, a 5.79 percent gain in the stock market would take what, a year or so?   

This may be the most controversial (yet conservative) assertion in this essay.  I researched annual closing prices of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1960 to 2004. In that period, the average annual gain was 6.72 percent, as the Dow moved from 615.89 to 10,783.01.  Reaching 20 years farther back to include the World War II years, the average annual gain was greater—an average of 7.15 percent from 1940 to 2004.  Starting even in 1970, shortly before a long bear market, the average annual gain on the Dow through 2004 was 7.8 percent.  Cherry-picking just the boom years since 1981, the Dow’s average annual gain through 2004 was 11.54 percent.

As stated elsewhere, the Nasdaq Composite’s average annual ascent in the 20 years since 1985—accounting even for the three consecutive big losers following 1999—has been 11.5 percent.  Perhaps it’s now hard to believe: The same index that not all that long ago topped 5000 didn’t even open above four digits until 1996 (see table below).