Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffet found reason to be optimistic in his 2008 annual letter to shareholders (released at the end of February and available here).
 
He uses a slew of graphic metaphors – "By year-end, investors of all stripes were bloodied and confused, much as if they were small birds that had strayed into a badminton game." – but threw in some optimism, reminding his shareholders that the country has "faced far worse travails in the past." Among those: two great wars, a dozen or so panics and recessions; virulent inflation leading to a 21½% prime rate in 1980; and the Great Depression, when unemployment was between 15% and 25% for …