Accounting exposure results when exchange rate changes alter the home currency value of foreign currency-denominated assets and liabilities. The big debate in the accounting profession centers on which foreign currency assets and liabilities should be translated at the current rate (these assets and liabilities are exposed because their home currency values change in line with the exchange rate) and which assets and liabilities should be translated at the historical rate (the rate in effect at the time the asset was acquired or the liability incurred).These latter assets and liabilities are regarded as not being exposed because they maintain their home currency values regardless of what happens to the exchange rate.By contrast, economic exposure measures the extent to which a given currency change affects the value of the firm. Nominal exchange rate changes affect the home currency value of the transaction exposure component of economic exposure because these cash flows are fixed. But only real exchange rate changes- inflation-adjusted currency changes--affect the firm's future sales revenues and costs, its operating cash flows.