Lincoln does not apply to Indians.

"The global market cap (m-cap) to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio has crossed 100 percent for the first time since January this year indicating investor bullishness and overvaluation due to fiscal spending and central bank money printing. The ratio, which is a favorite of billionaire investor Warren Buffett is about 64 percent higher than the historical average." "India's m-cap to GDP ratio, now 69 percent, is near its historical averages, suggesting Indian stocks beyond the top ten are fairly valued, said analysts." Are they? "Of all the countries in the world, the disconnect between rallying global stocks and deteriorating data is probably the most pronounced in India," wrote Nupur Acharya and Abhishek Vishnoi. "In fact, the outlook for Indian businesses is the worst in the world, IHS Markit said alst month." "Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex is up 45% from its March 23 low, thanks to rising interest of first time investors..." "Companies with high levels of debt are the latest beneficiaries of a retail investor-fueled rally in Indian stocks that's defying the worst economic outlook in four decades," wrote Ronojoy Mazumdar and Ishika Mukherjee. Known as Robinhood investors, "India's retail investors are leaving their mark on a risky corner of the nation's $1.9 trillion share market: penny stocks," the authors wrote. "Companies that have zero revenue make up about a fifth of the 800 stocks in the custom basket, and prices for some have doubled while the market value of others has run up into millions of dollars." Giving a long list of reasons, long time investor Mohit Satyanand wrote why he is "happy sitting the next few months out". The euphoria in the Indian stock market is so risky because punters have no reliable data on our GDP and finances of companies. "The US economy shrank at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 32.9 percent during the second quarter of 2020 as the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic spurred an economic collapse of record-breaking speed and size, the Commerce Department reported." India's calculation of GDP growth is suspect and incredible. "The GDP series suggests that India's economic boom in the 2005-11 period continued at a nearly identical pace in the 2012-18 period at just above 7%. Almost all other indicators of economic activity suggest otherwise," wrote Pramit Bhattacharya and Nikita Kwatra. "Three years ago, India rebased its GDP statistics from base year 2004-05 to base year 2011-12, normally a boring exercise. But it generated huge controversy, as somewhat magically the Central Statistics Office (CSO) upped the GDP growth rate by 2 percentage points," wrote Ajay Chhibber. "Now, after a delay of three years, CSO, under the guidance of Niti Aayog, has rebased the past GDP series, and the GDP growth rate of the four years of the Modi administration is now higher than even that under the boom years of UPA." Where the government leads, crony capitalists follow. "On 20 May, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), whihch regulates the stock markets, asked listed companies to disclose the material impact of the pandemic on their operation," wrote an editorial in the Mint. "Yet, as shown by a Mint analysis of the response of 50 companies that constitute the Nifty50 stock index, most have had only sketchy information to reveal as part of their last-quarter reports for 2019-20, the last such on public report." Americans may not be gullible, but Indians can be fooled all the time. We love it.