Remember that the $422,000 for stocks and bonds is based upon current values. I think most people will be devastated when it finally becomes apparent that most of the publicly traded corporations have been gutted and have little or no value. Creative accounting, stock buybacks with borrowed money, assets marked to fictitious values, etc. will become to the forefront as people try to cash in for retirement.
It depends on how you want to evaluate companies. Standard economic theory says a company is worth the value of its discounted future after-tax cash flows. Of course, there are many gaps in GAAP, but you can’t hide lack of real profits in the long run.
I usually tend to ignore the income statement and look at the cash flow statement.
It’s not just the value of the stocks that’s misleading, because not many owners get to sell the stock at maximum prices. It’s the tax that has to be paid to attain that value. A sensible statistic would factor that in.