So the FTSE100 has finally broken its record – it’s still not doing nearly as well as executive pay

The FTSE100 index has at last breached 7,000, surpassing its peak of 30 December 1999 and provoking moderate celebration among investors who have enjoyed such poor returns all these years. A thousand pounds invested in FTSE100 stocks on Millennium Eve, with dividends reinvested, was worth £1,670 by last month, an annual return of 3.4 per cent compared to inflation over the period of around 2.9 per cent. The same sum invested in a London house would have been worth £3,200, nearly twice the return on shares if we ignore running costs and the leverage effect of mortgage borrowing; invested on the rollercoaster of gold bullion, it would have been worth £4,500. And of course one of the best ways to get richer over the past 15 years would have been not to worry about what to buy, but to blag your way into a top job at a FTSE100 company: the average chief executive’s annual pay has risen since 1999 from £1.2