To be sure, the degree of risk aversion differs from person to person, but judging the way prices behave in today’s markets compared with those of a century or more ago, one is hard pressed to find significant differences.
The way we evaluate assets, and the way changes in those values affect our economy, do not appear to be coming out of a set of rules that is different from the one that governed the actions of our forebears. Hence, as the first cut at the question “Is there a new economy?” the answer in a more profound sense is no.