May 29, 2013:  This chart shows the DOW, Dow Jones Industrial Average, adjusted for inflation. 

From Chartoftheday.com¹

Today, the Dow made another all-time record high. For some long-term perspective, today's chart illustrates the inflation-adjusted Dow since 1900. Of interest is that the inflation-adjusted Dow has traded within the confines of an extremely long-term upward sloping trend channel over the past 113 years. It is also of interest that the secular bear market that concluded in the early 1980s was almost as severe as the one that concluded in the early 1930s. Also, while the market action from the inflation-adjusted record high of 1999 to the financial crisis lows of 2009 was severe, the magnitude of this decline was much less than what occurred with the bear markets that concluded in the early 1930s and early 1980s. More recently, the non-inflation-adjusted Dow has continued to trade in all-time record high territory. However, the inflation-adjusted Dow still trades below both its 1999 and 2007 peaks -- albeit not by much (just 3% to go for a new all-time, inflation-adjusted record high).