This has been a remarkable year for the markets.  The S&P and the Dow indexes are up 18% and 19%, respectively.  But this run-up isn’t based on solid business foundations.  Quarterly profits have only increased 5% since 2012, but investors’ valuations of those profits (as measured by earnings per share) has increased 59% over the same period. What’s behind the disconnect?  Some argue that profits are stagnant because of short-termism—that decades of focusing on current profits over long-run innovativeness has resulted, now, in companies that are hollowed out.