Godfather it takes two to tango, reckless lenders and reckless borrowers.Foreign banks that lent recklessly share the blame. And bear in mind that private debt was heaped onto taxpayers with total disregard for capitalism. It's fairly black and white in this respect.
Which foreign banks lent recklessly and to whom?
Not directly to the laypersons, the Irish electorate, but to Irish banks who should have discharged their duties far better than they did.
The Irish Banks were supposed to be the buffer, the professionals acting on their borrowers interest, but they became street traders, disavowing their professionalism.
They acted more like rogue traders, chasing share price and market share without any thought for the wider consequences, buying sub-prime mortgages as part of toxic packages without even checking them, offering 110% loans without requiring proof of identity or valuation.
Certainly there were influences at work from outside Ireland, but we were lured, not pushed and I didn't see bankers beating people over the head to accept unsustainable low interest rate loans.
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People taking their money out of the country are now compounding the error, forcing the taxpayer to borrow to fund the resultant loss of deposits to ensure banks remain viable.
When the book gets written on this, the only thing comparable to the forcing of odious debt on an unwilling electorate will be the actions of those who failed to support this country and moved their deposits elsewhere.
Some might be honest enough to admit what they've done, but shame on them anyway for doing it, and I can see I'm not alone in thinking like this about their actions.
They go on and on pontificating about their "losses" [which they have NEVER suffered] to justify their traitorous actions
All the time they are making it more likely Ireland will default through creating a deposit "Hole" for others to fill and making their fears into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Its the same Gombeen Man "I'm alright, Jack" attitude that has held this country back for so long and does more good for other economies than our own.
Depositors need to think about what they're doing to this country with every Euro they remove.
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"Its just money - its nothing personal".
Its very personal when another business fails and another family ends up on the dole queue.
I feel very strongly about this matter.
The flight of capital from Ireland has done this country immeasurable harm and we are barely holding it together.
I believe that Irish people who do not support the Irish economy in times like this should have their passports taken away.
They are behaving unpatriotically and are now little more than tools of destruction in the hands of foreign entities like the rating agencies.
If they don't see their role in keeping their money here and spending it here to help Ireland recover, then they are behaving like "mé-féiner" parasites.
Their supposed support for social contracts and democracy is thus only lip service, because supporting an abstract concept while not supporting the country itself is mere sophistry.
ONQ.