The bull market is chugging along propelled by economic data, such as the 266,000 new private-sector jobs in November and progress on the trade front. Unemployment fell to 3.5 percent. Last summer we heard the "R" word day after day and the outlook was deteriorating, or so some said. People who should have known better insisted that the brief and only partly inverted yield curve meant that a recession was all but inevitable. Wrong. We don't hear about the curve anymore and few see a recession next year.

Stock prices are up plus 28 percent year-to-date (not counting dividends). Clearly, there isn’t much concern about an impeachment. Those in Washington and in the media believe that Americans are glued to the coverage and hang on every word. That is inside-out thinking. There are 357 million Americans and on any given day 350 million people did not see one minute of cable news nor hear one minute of talk radio. (Thank you, George Will, for that perspective.)  People have jobs, families, hobbies, interests, books to read, investments, sports teams to follow, children to raise, and much more. Politics is far down their list. 

People know that times are good for them. Real wages are rising amid full employment, and household net worth is climbing to new records. Other economic measures are at levels not seen in years. 

Still, the market’s wall of worry is high. Cautious, defensive and cash-laden investors, of which there are millions now, provide a cushion under the market, one that prevents selling and normal profit-taking from getting out of hand. That is especially true because rates on CDs and money-market funds are so low. Money that flowed into money-market funds and defensive issues amid growth concerns is flowing right back out and into the market. With interest rates so low, where else could it go? 

There are more tailwinds. They include hedge fund buying, corporate buyback programs and flows from investors overseas. If valuations were off the charts I would temper my outlook. But they aren’t. They are a little above historically average levels, yes, but these are not average times for interest rates, taxes, regulations, business incentives, prospects, and new technologies. They are much better than average. 

Bottom line:  Prosperity is spreading and people know it. And they see better days ahead.