Great point. I don't think people generally consider what makes up the growth of the stock market. I think two major components are value creation in the real e

Great point. I don't think people generally consider what makes up the growth of the stock market. I think two major components are value creation in the real economy (which sort of is what GDP is supposed to measure) and inflation, as you suggest. I think profits are merged into "GDP"? That doesn't account for 7 percent. I can think of another component, "survivorship bias". The market is not all companies, just the ones doing well.