Hal Varian is, among other things, Google's Chief Economist, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, a New York Times columnist, and author of many books including Information Rules.  He is also been around a long time and seen many ups and downs in the economy.  I found it comforting when he reminded a group of us (I am paraphrasing): "When things seem really good, it is never as good as it seems.  And when things seem really bad, it is never as bad it seems."

Given the recent madness, I hope he is right