In Pictures : Sign of Times: Euphoria!

What a week. Global stocks on a record ramp.

The above represents the performance charts of the Philippine Phisix, Japan's Nikkei, the German Dax and Hong Kong's Hang Seng from stockcharts.com. I chose 2013 as reference point in order to highlight the effects of Japanese government's Abenomics, China's multiple easing measures and the ECB's do whatever it takes QE.

All stocks indicated have been at various records or milestone highs!

The following pictures highlights on the prevailing sentiment.

The Nikkei Asia cheers on Japan's Nikkei's touching the 20,000 milestone last April 10

Mainland Chinese stock market retail participants stampeded to aggressively bid up Hong Kong's stocks as the state run China Security Journals called for a buy! (image from the Financial Times)

German publication Deutsch Welle celebrates the Dax's 15 year high!

The Philippine Stock Exchange believes that economic nirvana has been attained  as the Phisix broke through 8,000

All of the above have been expressive of the following:

Harvard's Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff documented and chronicled all financial crises in the world during the last two centuries (1810-2010) and found a common denominator:

The essence of the this-time-is-different syndrome is simple. It is rooted in the firmly held belief that financial crises are things that happen to other people in other countries at other times; crises do not happen to us, here and now. We are doing things better, we are smarter, we have learned from past mistakes. The old rules of valuation no longer apply. The current boom, unlike the many booms that preceded catastrophic collapses in the past (even in our country), is built on sound fundamentals, structural reforms, technological innovation, and good policy. Or so the story goes.

This time is different!