Instead, it is one of a country lurching from one crisis to another. We seem to have a penchant for self-inflicted wounds, looking at our country from the glass is half empty perspective. I appeal to all of us to look at our economy from a glass half full point of view. This is actually not difficult to do.
fair value accounting contributes to excessive leverage during boom periods and leads to excessive write-downs in busts. Under such accounting irrational exuberance in asset prices can feed through to high published profits and perhaps bonuses, encouraging more irrational exuberance in a self-reinforcing fashion: when markets turn down, it can equally drive irrational despair.