Triumph of the OptimistsInvestors have too often extrapolated from recent experience. In the 1950s, who but the most rampant optimist would have dreamed that over the next fifty years the real return on equities would be 9 percent per year? Yet this is what happened in the U. S. stock market. The optimists triumphed. However, as Don Marquis observed, an optimist is someone who never had much experience. The authors of Triumph of the Optimists extend our experience across