quot;What is a company really worth?quot; is a question asked repeatedly during the recent financial crisis. Attention has been focused on short-term valuation issues, like the quot;mark-to-marketquot; controversy. Sorting out these issues is complicated by the fact that the market puts a value...

<DIV>More than half a decade has passed since the bursting of the housing bubble and the collapse of Lehman Brothers. In retrospect, what is surprising is that these events and their consequences came as such a surprise. What was it that prevented most of the world from recognizing the impending...</div>