Great rotation: Tectonic shift or just a myth?

No-one likes a party pooper, but could someone please explain to this bemused contrarian why equity investors have suddenly become so optimistic?

Being contrarian just for the hell of it is, I know, a foolish pursuit, but I find myself increasingly struggling to connect ‘sentiment’ and ‘newsflow’ back to the bitter reality of financial markets. It is important to qualify my cynicism, largely because I am very far from being a paid-up member of the hard-money brigade who think we are all going to hell in a handcart. I also still happen to think investing in shares is probably a good idea over the long term, based on the notion equities are the least worst of a bad bunch. But let us examine the evidence for the remainder of 2013....