Historic cost accounting remained in the ascendancy in the US from the 1940s right though to the early 1970s. But from the mid-1970s onwards, accounting standard-setters began to embrace fair value measurement, first in the context of banks’ portfolios of equities and other marketable securities. 5 By the late 1980s, there was widespread recognition that traditional accounting approaches were obscuring the real value of securities and derivatives. US experience during the Savings and Loan crisis in the mid-1980s provided further impetus. Forbearance, including about the valuation of assets and liabilities, was widely believed to have been a cause of the build-up of problems among the thrifts. 6 In 1989, Congress passed the Financial Institutions Recovery, Reform and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), tightening valuation standards among banks and bringing them closer to fair values. In the same year, the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) commenced a project to assess the measurement and disclosure of financial instruments. These too were to suffer a set-back. By 1990, recession had taken hold in the US, with lending contracting sharply. As in 1938, the US economy was suffering “financial headwinds”. As in 1938, the Fed were quick to call for a relaxation of prudential and valuation standards to head-off pressures on banks. 7 And as in 1938, the upshot was a concerted move by the then-President, George Bush, relaxing examination and valuation standards. 8 For the second time, fair value had been returned to its box. And so to the present day – the third phase.
This would be translated into a need for more qualitative foreign direct investments, which in turn, would contribute to a steady growth of exports. To this end, taking advantage of the global environment, which is constantly searching for new markets, I would suggest a more qualitative national marketing strategy. This strategy should highlight professionally and contemporarily, all the recent incentives and the multiple opportunities Albania provides. Also, I think it is just the time to integrate even the joint regional projects into our long-term development plans. Road infrastructure, energy, communication, tourism and other areas are still underdeveloped in regional level. Therefore, I assess that regional projects of strategic nature raise the interest of domestic and foreign investors. If taken separately the economies of the region are relatively small, but altogether they form an attractive market, with more investment opportunities. In recent years, it is noticed that the penetration of foreign investments in our region is relatively small and mainly, it reflects the privatization process of important public properties. The same thing has occurred to the Albanian economy. More concretely, during 2000 – 2006, the overall foreign direct investments, according to the balance of payments statistics, are estimated to about USD 1.45 billion, about 3.5 percent of GDP realised over the same period. If we would identify the reasons why FDIs inflows are so modest, we might mention the complex problems characterising our region, while different reasons that reduce the absorbing capability of our economy exist even in the national plan.