At the time a colleague of mine wrote a paper recommending Irish government bonds as a fantastic investment. He argued that since Ireland was a net exporter it would work its way out of the situation so long as it continued to sell more than it bought. He was told that the bank was no place for such simpleton ideas.
Come 2019 the debt was down to 78%, the boys were back in the government as if nothing had happened and my colleague had done very very nicely out of his simpleton idea!