Subject: Re: The good old days ...
"From end-1997 to end-1998, equities as a percent of book fell from 115% to 69%, (even though equities were up in absolute terms), primarily due to the ocean of bonds that came with Gen Re."

Good point. However the rate of growth of the equity portfolio also changed markedly, from 31%/yr during the period Jan'86 to Jan '98,(starting portfolio value, before purchases, sales and dividends) to 8% during the period Jan '99 to Jan '17.