WIDESPREAD ALARM around Leinster House on Tuesday. Everybody thought we had finally fallen over the cliff into the abyss. Time to stock up on beans and shotgun cartridges.

The place was overrun by economists.

Groupies went weak at the knees. “There’s Constantin Gurdgiev and that Brian Lucey chap . . . is that, dear God, yes, it is . . . Prof Carmen Reinhart . . . there’s nothing she doesn’t know about the contagion . . .”

And so on.

In fact, Peter “Banker” Mathews was buying lunch for some of the big name participants in the 10th Infiniti conference on international finance, which took place in Trinity College during the week.

The keynote speakers – Prof Reinhart of and Prof Iftekhar Hasan – addressed the heartwarming topic, A Decade of Debt.

Then they addressed the table d’hote in the members’ restaurant, along with a number of their colleagues. “Lunch was measured, sober, good humoured and hopeful,” Peter told us afterwards.

Well it’s alright for them . . .