Fear subsides, prices rise (7)

Here's an update to a chart I've posted many times in the past. It backs up the points I made in my prior post about how a weaker dollar is a sign that fear is subsiding. The dominant features of the economic and financial market landscape since last March are all very encouraging: declining volatility, declining safe-haven premiums, declining credit spreads, rising prices for risky assets, fewer layoffs, rising confidence, to name a few. There's still plenty of room for improvement.