The S&P/TSX Composite Index is up more than 26 per cent year-over-year.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press

John Rapley is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail. He is an author and academic whose books include Why Empires Fall and Twilight of the Money Gods.

Is it 1999 all over again in the markets?

The economy may be in recession, but if you’re invested in stocks, things have seldom been better. American markets dipped on Friday with the escalating trade war between the United States and China. But on Monday they pared back most losses as rhetoric cooled. The S&P 500 index is still up more than 13 per cent year-over-year.

In Canada, it’s even better. With the S&P/TSX Composite Index up more than 20 per cent year-over-year, a twenty-something living at home and socking money into shares can look forward to retiring at 40. Housing bubble? That’s so 2020.

And the prospects for 2026 are more of the same. Analysts are now predicting that the S&P 500 could hit 9,000 next year. Helping to drive the rally is the increasing popularity of passive investment funds, which just follow the market and so reinforce existing momentum. And with the U.S. market actually underperforming the rest of the world, returns elsewhere will probably be even........

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