The U.S. equity markets have delivered very different returns over the past 90 years. Use the following data arranged by decade to answer the following questions about these U.S. equity investment returns.

a. Which period shown had the highest total returns? The lowest?

b. Which decade had the highest dividend returns? When were dividends clearly not a priority for publicly traded companies?

c. The 1990s was a boom period for U.S. equity returns. How did firm's react in terms of their dividend distributions?

d. How has the 2000s period fared? How do you think publicly traded companies have started changing their dividend distribution habits as a result?