Ben S Bernanke: Emerging from the crisis – where do we stand? Speech by Mr Ben S Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, at the 6th ECB Central Banking Conference, Frankfurt am Main, 19 November 2010.
A negative reaction on the markets – for example a 200 basis point increase in risk premiums, remaining below the level recorded at the end of 2011 – would trigger a rapid increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio; considering the negative impact on economic growth of the increase in interest rates and crisis of confidence, the ratio would soon be on an unsustainable path (Figure 7c).