by GENE EPSTEIN
If you adjust by the consumer price index, the bull market looks way overrated.The Standard & Poors 500 index has “now logged 33 all-time highs this year,” reported the Associated Press on Sept. 5, when the index hit yet another “record close” of 2007.7. Such talk conjures up a revival of the go-go years of the 1990s, when new all-time highs kept recurring.Back in the 90s, however, the new peaks could withstand inflation adjustment and legitimately be new peaks. This years streak of 33 has been merely nominal. In todays dollars, as the table shows, the S&P 500 still has more than 100 points to go before exceeding its all-time closing high set on March 24, 2000.