S&P 500 Profits 86% Higher Due To Accounting Standards: BlackRock

With the year all but finished, the S&P 500 is up more than 15% and it looks like the bears have been proven wrong. But according to the BlackRock 2015 Investment Outlook, a lot of those gains came from accounting tricks, not actual business growth (h/t Zero Hedge).

“S&P 500 profits are 86% higher than they would be if accounting standards of the national accounts were used,” BlackRock writes, citing research from Pelham Smithers Associates. “And the gap between the two measures is widening.”

S&P 500 earnings estimates will be hard to reach next year

For value investors the disconnect between low single-digit GDP growth and double-digit price increases is pretty clear, at some point the two things have to get...