Brand Bubble?

Recently two Y&R executives wrote a book called the Brand Bubble (see the video) in which they predict a huge crunch of intangible value by lack of consumer love for brands in general. I tend to doubt that, but I do get this nasty feeling that there actually might be something true in the concept of a brand bubble. Now I'm not an accountant (and I don't want to become one either) but I do know that intellectual property is still a relatively new area of expertise in the financial world. How do you value what is intangible. How do you measure brand equity. In any case, it's something the ad industry and the financial industry still haven't figured out. Remuneration for instance for brandbuilding by agencies is seldom based on the growth of brand equity. An agency is being paid for the hours they work, not for the value they add. For those who are really interested (and trained) in this, there a great discussion going on at IAM (intellectual asset management).