Mr. David McWilliams:

I expected the Government to make the guarantee more conditional. Brian Lenihan told me he liked speaking to me sometimes because I spoke English not economics and “economicese”. I told him to regard it as being like writing an insurance policy. If one writes an insurance policy for a young fellow to drive there will be small print to the effect that if he is drunk or taking drugs, etc., the policy is null and void. I told him to put in conditions to protect himself because we were still buying time. Everything was calm, amazingly, given what had gone before.