Masters of the Silver Lining

I like hunting for silver linings as much as the next guy. But there is one group of people who are so good at finding them that I can only dream of matching their prowess.
I am talking, of course, about C.E.O.’s.
It is earnings season and we are of course in the grip of a recession, so you would expect to find some super-optimistic proclamations from C.E.O.’s even when the news is bad. For instance:
In a Times report yesterday, by Brooke Barnes, about the Walt Disney Company’s 97 percent quarterly drop in operating income in its movie division, C.E.O. Robert Iger mentions that “I think we have some real opportunities in terms of reducing expenses.”
I love that reducing expenses is seen as an “opportunity.” With opportunities like those, who needs problems?
Iger is of course just one of thousands of executives who are paid to find and highlight silver linings. Please send along any other examples you come across in the business news — or, even better, from previous downturns.