The call that went awry

A conference call organized by Citigroup which was supposed to quell investors' fears over Ireland's economic woes became an unmitigated disaster when Citi failed to mute the investors' lines. When the investors realized their lines were not muted they proceeded to heckle Ireland's finance minister Brian Lenihan as he attempted to deliver his message. As things got out of control Citigroup officials shut down the line.

Host Philip Brown, head of public sector debt at Citigroup, restarted the call 20 minutes later. Citigroup cited technical difficulties as the culprit. That conference call technology can get pretty tricky at times.