In the past, when there had been strict market and foreign exchange controls and a war had broken out, the black market in dollars had sprung to life and the stock market had suffered. Savings were wiped out overnight. This time, when the war broke out, as a result of the economic reforms, Israel had virtually no exchange controls in place. [...] By the end of the war, the stock market was only two percent below its pre-war level, and the shekel had recovered almost completely. That was a major key to maintaining national morale. One of the keys to this optimism was the assessment that had been made, not by naturally-supportive Jews, but by foreign investors taking a cold look at the IASB-based bottom lines of companies and government accounts. Among the most important assessments published during the war were those of the ratings companies that left their pre-war ratings untouched.

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