Shop for Blue-Chip Names at 1981 Valuations By Sham Gad About this article: It's not often that you are offered an opportunity to acquire the creme de la creme of American industry at cheap prices. It's even rarer to find these companies at the bargain levels that some are fetching today. Only a crisis of great magnitude -- which we have today -- can allow this to happen. The overall percentage of stocks trading at single-digit price-to-earnings ratios today is 61%. The last time the proportion was this high was in the 1980s. The U.S., unquestionably the deepest and most advanced market in the world, is cheap. And I mean cheap on the basis of historical earnings cycles, which include both peak and recessionary business cycles. It's foolish to value businesses on the basis of the peak earnings of the past several years. In the case of some great blue-chip names, stock prices have already discounted earnings declines... Or, call us at 1-866-321-TSCM (8726) Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. ET. Outside the U.S. and in Canada, call 1-212-321-5200. More Stories From RealMoney Durable Goods Up Move Down the Tech Food Chain Jobless Claims Still High Bulls' Tenacity Is the Big Question Mark Should You Buy It? Pharmaceutical Product Development Bad News Trumps All Support for Banks Holds, For Now Bummer, Yields Are on the Rise Money on the Line Makes a Big Difference Structured Products: Unsafe at Any Price MORE STORIES FROM REALMONEY

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