ABSTRACT: The advent of the Great Recession in 2008 was the culmination of a perfect storm
of lax regulation, a growing housing bubble, rising popularity of derivatives instruments, and
questionable banking practices. In addition to these causes, management incentives, as well as
certain US accounting standards, contributed to the financial crisis. We outline the significant
effects of these incentive structures, and the role of fair value accounting standards during the
crisis, and discuss implications and relevance of these rules to practitioners, standard-setters, and
academics.