Includes bibliographical references and index.

This book argues that the neoclassial synthesis is insufficiently attentative to the impact of the stock market on the economy. Smithers proposes an alternative model, which takes into account the differing preferences of business managers and owners of capital.

1: Introduction -- 2: Surprising Features of the Model -- 3: The Model in Summary -- 4: Management Behaviour, Investment, Debt, and Pay-out Ratios -- 5: Corporate Leverage and Household Portfolio Preference -- 6: The Growth of Corporate Equity -- 7: The Yield Curve -- 8: The Risk-free Short-term Rate of Interest -- 9: Equity, Bond, and Cash Relative Returns -- 10: Stock Market Returns Do Not Follow a Random Walk -- 11: The Risks of Equities at Different Time Horizons -- 12: The Time Horizon at Which Investors Will Prefer Equities to Bonds -- 13: Changes in Aggregate Risk Aversion -- 14: Monetary Policy, Leverage, and Portfolio Preferences -- 15: Valuing the US Stock Market -- 16: The Real Return on Equity Capital Worldwide -- 17: Money- and Time-weighted Returns -- 18: The Behaviour of the Firm -- 19: Corporate Investment and the Miller-Modigliani Theorem -- 20: Land, Inventories, and Trade Credit -- 21: How the Market Returns to Fair Value -- 22: Fluctuations in the Hurdle Rate -- 23: Tangibles and Intangibles -- 24: Other Problems from Labelling IP Expenditure as Investment -- 25: Inflation, Leverage, Growth, and Financial Stability -- 26: Tax -- 27: Portfolio Preference and Retirement Savings -- 28: Life Cycle Savings Hypothesis -- 29: Depreciation, Capital Consumption, and Maintenance -- 30: Comparison with Other Approaches -- 31: The Efficient Market Hypothesis -- 32: Summary -- 33: Comments in Conclusion -- APPENDIX 1: The Duration of Bonds and Equities -- APPENDIX 2: The Valuation of Unquoted Companies in The Financial Accounts of the United States -- Z1 -- APPENDIX 3: Measurement of the Net Capital Stock and Depreciation in the United States -- APPENDIX 4: Data Sources, Use, and Methods of Calculation