Since an important part of innovating is getting your new ideas to spread, looking at how bad ideas spread can be useful. In this case, the bad ideas are spreading because they provide some level of comfort to people (even though they are usually expressed hysterically). In the case of the economy, bad ideas that spread are probably best characterised as fads. There’s no good reason for them to spread, and often they replicate for reasons that are unrelated to their features or benefits. A lot of firms try to find the next fad, but in the long run, it seems to me that it is better to try to build success by providing a solid product or service, rather than simply through letting people feel like they belong. Now that the fad part of their lifespan has passed, it looks like if you really like Crocs because of their features, you better buy more pairs soon, just to use a recent example of a bad idea that spread widely!