[pashamur]

1) 20 years is a small sample size

2) The US has enjoyed the status of the world's reserve currency since 1945, which literally means the gains of the U.S. stock market are partly financed by the whole world (note that we used to have a net surplus with other countries pre-1970, but now run a deep deficit and have off-shored our domestic manufacturing base - as a result of needing to get dollars out into the system)

3) Most stock market analyses on the US stock market are done in this 1945-now period when the US has been dominant on the world stage; it's a long time in an individual's life but a short time historically. If that changes, I expect lots of things that were "always true" to no longer be true anymore.

More reading: https://www.lynalden.com/fraying-petrodollar-system/