Is the worst of the economic crisis over? BBC Radio 4’s Today programme has been babbling about this for the past week or so, and Barack Obama has now joined them.

He said on Friday of last week that he saw “glimmers of hope” in the US economy. This followed more cautious comments by Lawrence Summers, chair of the US National Economic Council, who said that the “sense of free fall” would end in the next few months.

Anger at the Irish government's response to the recession erupted onto the streets of Dublin last Saturday.

In the biggest demonstration in the country for decades, more than 120,000 people marched over the Irish government's handling of the economic crisis.

Over 300 workers from the ongoing occupation at Waterford Crystal led the march alongside sacked workers from SR Technics, an aviation technology firm at Dublin airport.