The apparent disconnect between what the CFOs say about how appalling the economy is for customers and companies alongside what investors think is never clearer than when checking share performance for 2009.
And if the performance of some travel and technology firms is anything to go it is hardly surprising that the likes of Kayak, Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport - to name just three - are being mentioned as likely candidates for an IPO in 2010.
Take the three big publicly listed online travel agencies in the US.
Orbitz started 2009 - just as the economy around the world was heading south - at $3.88 a share.
Fast forward almost 12 months and Barney Harford and co have added around 50% to the share price.
Next consider Expedia, which began the year at almost its lowest level ever ($8.79 a share) but has now almost back to early-2008 prices - well over a four-fold increase in just 12 months.
And, finally, to the current darling of the US OTAs, Priceline.
It, too, started at an 18-month low, falling dramatically after its steady rise in share price through the the 2000s.
But after hovering around $70 a share level for the first two months of 2009, Priceline has soared to over $220 a share - another percentage busting increase for Jeff Boyd.
Clearly investors saw something in the OTAs that much of Wall Street's other sectors couldn't provide, illustrated by this chart with the Nasdaq and Dow Jones indices plotted against Priceline, Expedia and Orbitz.
Expedia and Priceline (which also had the honour of moving past arch rival Expedia's market cap this year) massively outperformed the other leading stocks on Wall Street.
Some analysts may point to how the markets reacted to the long term durability of the agency model, while others will suggest that 2009 simply saw recoveries from when the market tanked in 2008.