Stocks Show Americans Better Off With S&P 500 Cheap to World

As politicians debate whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago, the stock market is saying yes.

With 50 days before the national election, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has rallied 82 percent to a four-year high since President Barack Obama took office. The advance puts the gauge 6.8 percent from its record, closer to the all-time high than any of the world’s biggest stock markets, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The benchmark index of American equity is trading at 14.9 times reported earnings, the biggest discount to MSCI’s global measure since March 2010.