Chapter 7
U.S. Zombies on IV Drip
At the time Ireland’s leaders were deciding to offer a blanket guarantee for their banks’ liabilities, U.S. officials were also discussing measures to stem the panic in financial markets following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The idea of a blanket guarantee was first brought up by Timothy Geithner, head of the New York Federal Reserve at the time, during the summer of 2008 but was dismissed as too radical by others. However, a few months later and after Lehman’s fall in September, it was back on the table and its proponents had grown in number. This time Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke were also leaning toward supporting it, hoping that it would help reverse the erosion of trust ...
