The last one was given by Prof. Maurice Obstfeld of the University of California last year, in December 2011. The lecture by Hon’ble Mr. Shanmugaratnam this evening will be the 13th in the series. The distinguished speaker – Mr. Shanmugaratnam Hon’ble Mr. Shanmugaratnam is the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, of course.
As a consequence, they are entering the current downturn with high deficit  1  In the euro area the total writedowns and capital raised of large and complex banking groups and other banks since the second quarter of 2007 amount to $ bn and $ bn respectively (US: writedowns: $ bn, capital raised: $ bn; UK and Switzerland: writedowns: $ bn, capital raised: $ bn).