"Stocks Finally Starting To Look Affordable"

David Leonhardt at Economix writes:

At long last, stocks are beginning to look cheap.
With today’s declines, the long-term price-earnings ratio of the Standard & Poor 500-stock index is down to about 12.3. Over the past century, this ratio has averaged about 16. So relative to corporate profits, the stock market now appears to be undervalued by about 30 percent.