Why Haven't We Learned Any Economic Lessons from 2008?
Over in the Motherland, where the Celtic Tiger got shot from ambush and turned into a rug by the banksters who broke the world economy and then stole what was left of it, they've looked into the causes of the crash in that country and it doesn't look good at all for the various masters of various universes. Yes, as it turns out, in our golden new international economy, thievery and pillage recognize no borders.
The guarantee was not conceived on a single Monday night in September 2008; Department of Finance documents show that it was considered as part of a range of options as early as January 2008. "Decision-makers, however, were forced to decide on a course of action in the absence of accurate information about the underlying health of financial institutions; no independent in-depth 'deep dove' investigating of the banks had been commissioned by the authorities by September 2008." Mr. Lynch said the crisis in the banks was caused by the decisions by the board themselves. He said there were recommendations for future governments, the banks and other State institutions. Mr. Lynch said an independent budget office should be established and Oireachtas committees should be given more powers.
Democratic accountability. What a concept. Naturally, of course, the primary brigands decline to be part of the messy business of investigating their crimes and schemes. The European Central Bank has "declined to participate" in the Irish inquiry. Too bad, because the ECB has a bit of blackmail for which it really should answer.
The inquiry also found the European Central Bank explicitly threatened the government in March 2011, saying it would withdraw emergency support for Ireland's banks if losses were imposed on senior bondholders. The sharply worded criticism heads the final report of the cross-party committee. Meanwhile, it also finds that the then attorney general, Paul Gallagher, explored the possibility of burden-sharing with senior bondholders, with legal assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in November 2010. However, it confirms a troika programme involving the ECB, IMF and the European Union could not have been agreed if the government had targeted senior bondholders. The inquiry finds the ECB's refusal to allow Ireland to force losses upon bondholders led to Irish citizens taking on "inappropriate" and significant banking debts.
The economic calamity of 2008 was entirely predictable. Everywhere in the world, its sources were unearned hubris and untrammeled fraud. And the basis for the hubris-and, therefore, the basis for the fraud-was the firm belief by the principal actors that the people of every country were a limitless reservoir of suckers, and that the elected governments who were supposed to look out for the people's interests were made up of a limitless collection of easily cowed timeservers who could be held up without a gun. And people wonder why "establishment" politicians remain curiously unpopular. And people wonder why demagogues triumph.
