Certainly, there is no evidence the world as a whole has been in a process of de-leveraging, particularly with increasing ratios of government debt to GDP taken into account. 4 Another manifestation of costs is the possible overvaluation of assets.
In some stock markets, PE ratios are higher than long-term averages, in spite of the fact earnings prospects are restrained by relatively low growth outlooks. Also, the gaps between housing and consumer price indices in some advanced countries, such as Switzerland, Australia, and Norway, have been rising rapidly in the last few years.