Ben S Bernanke: Stabilizing the financial markets and the economy Speech by Mr Ben S Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System, at the Economic Club of New York, New York, 15 October 2008. *  *  *  Good afternoon.
Alas, that the apparent solidity of the public finances was all a mirage was brutally exposed when global financial confidence collapsed. Already the Irish boom was well over: house prices were falling and the government deficit widening from early 2007.