Mr. Harry Browne:

My knowledge of that story of the rejection comes from the same source, namely, Michael Lewis’s article. I have no particular inside information about this. An editor would reject an article because of the overwhelming consensus among Irish elites in 2006 and 2007 - probably in some sense a stronger consensus in that period when things looked like they might be a little bit shaky - that we need to hold the line and not talk down the economy.

There is no question that newspaper editors have a keen sense of their responsibility. "Responsibility" is sometimes a dangerous word to use in journalism. The best journalism is often quite irresponsible, saying what needs to be said and finding truths that need to be told. If I were to put myself in the mindset of an editor who would reject that piece - I hope I would never have been that editor - I would have done so on the basis that it was irresponsible, undermining of the economy and in itself a potentially dangerous act to publish it. That is how I would imagine an editor would justify it to himself or herself. Of course, I am trying to put myself in a position. Clearly, we know it was one of the most important prescient pieces of journalism at the time.