Market Value Beyond—and Below—the Balance Sheet
Market-value premium or discount relative to recorded net worth · U.S. nonfinancial corporations · 1945–2025. Market equity spent much of the postwar era below the sector's recorded net worth. By 2025 it stood 137% above recorded net worth—and 2009 marked the start of the first uninterrupted positive-premium period.
What does it show?
Market equity spent much of the postwar era below the sector's recorded net worth. By 2025 it stood 137% above recorded net worth—and 2009 marked the start of the first uninterrupted positive-premium period.
Methodology
Use calendar-year-end observations from Federal Reserve Financial Accounts table S.11.1.b for U.S. nonfinancial corporate business. Total equity at market value (LM103181105.Q) is compared with net worth, defined as assets minus non-equity liabilities (FL102090005.Q). The market premium is the arithmetic residual: total equity minus recorded net worth. Intellectual-property products already recorded at current cost (LM105013765.Q) are retained as context but remain inside recorded net worth. Values are end-of-period and not seasonally adjusted. Limitations: This is the U.S. nonfinancial corporate sector, not the S&P 500; it includes a broader corporate and foreign-direct-investment equity universe. The residual is not a direct valuation of patents, brands, software, data, organizational capital, or other intangible assets. It also reflects expectations, risk premia, sentiment, and measurement differences. Recorded net worth already includes some intellectual-property products at current replacement cost, so 'recorded' is not synonymous with 'tangible.' Federal Reserve Financial Accounts history is revised; the source release is pinned so the prototype remains auditable.