Lorenzo Bini Smaghi: The euro area macroeconomic situation – where do we stand, where are we going? Keynote address by Mr Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at the New Year’s Reception 2010 organised by Industrie- und Handelskammer, Frankfurt am Main, 18 January 2010.
This was why, in previous months, in both the United States and Europe (for example, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom), the authorities had intervened precisely to avoid the collapse of banks that were in difficulty (Bear Sterns, Northern Rock, IKB and Roskilde). In the light of this assessment, it is legitimate to ask why the failure of Lehman Brothers was not prevented.