The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that the stock market is going through an affordability crisis. The Globe's Ian McGugan writes that share prices in Canada and the United States have shot up in recent years and not always for the best reasons. What seems to be driving them, at least in part, is an outburst of inflated expectations. If stock prices were booming because earnings were surging, there would be a lot to cheer and little to worry about. All else being equal, a stock that doubled in value because its earnings doubled in size would be just as good a purchase as it was previously. But that is not exactly what is happening. Yes, earnings have grown at a nice clip. However, what has also expanded is how much investors are willing to pay for each dollar of those earnings. The benchmark S&P 500 Index of big U.S. companies sold for 16 times expected earnings in 2016. It now sells for 23 times earnings. In early 2016, Dollarama shares traded for 23 times their expected earnings over the next year. Today, they sell for 40 times. Over the same period, the P/E on Loblaw stock shot from 17 to 23, while the earnings multiple on Royal Bank of Canada shares jumped from 10 to 15.