But a jerky, fitful rally soon evaporated as it became clear that the financial system, so shaken that it seemed as though it could only get better, actually got worse.
"The cars are really, really capable," says Fairfield, "and the rate at which they're getting better is actually increasing".
For too long we've pretended that students' results are getting better where actually all that's been happening is the exams have been getting easier and there's been a race to the bottom between exam boards and we need to stop that happening now.
Despite the persistent happy talk about a recovery, and the hundreds of charts that come along with it, the US economy is not getting better – it may actually be getting worse.
"We have come up now to 446,000 people in hard to reach and besieged areas since the beginning of the year, but it's not getting better, it is actually slowing down".
"It's not getting better, and it actually gets worse as we fail to solve more crimes," Cooper told VICE.
It will mean that things are actually getting better.
But it's too early to say whether it's actually getting better yet".
Apple then blamed a software bug that showed the phone was getting better reception than was actually the case.
It may be British pragmatism: budget cuts are the number one concern, but equally many think their services are actually getting better as deteriorating.
