On Sunday, 5 October 2008, in the middle of the financial crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück stood before the cameras. Merkel said: Wir sagen den Sparerinnen und Sparern, dass ihre Einlagen sicher sind! We tell the savers that their deposits are safe. No decision of parliament stood behind the guarantee. An economics journal later noted that it was put into the world without a decision of parliament, as a political promise. It calmed the savers, as intended.