The collapses often happened during periods of weak global activity associated with levels of unemployment at home and abroad that make it hard for displaced workers to get a job. The plight of the misfortunate former Irish Shipping workers has rightly been highlighted.
[Slide 4: Government bonds with negative yields] While low or negative rates and the asset purchase programmes are needed to provide sufficient monetary stimulus, a number of observers have voiced concern about their impact on the behaviour of economic agents, on the resilience of financial intermediaries and, ultimately, on financial stability.5 Today, I will offer some thoughts on these issues, focusing on the banking sector, which plays a key role in the transmission of monetary policy in the euro area.