Corporate profits have increased for the three consecutive years from fiscal 2002, and are expected to continue to increase in the current fiscal year. Firms' ratio of current profits to sales has already exceeded the peak marked during the bubble era.
Incidentally, the impact of the three-year tender was underestimated when I announced it in December, because many people expected the ECB to expand its government bond purchases, the famous “bazooka”. Maybe I should have called the tender “Big Bertha” when I announced it, then everyone would have listened. The ECB is hardly buying any bonds of fiscally weak euro area countries at the moment.