The Irish Constitution brought down Greece and the world.

Do you remember the RTÉ documentary “Aftershock”? The promo for the programme promised us comment from four of our most astute commentators. Justine McCarthy argued that the cause of our current financial crisis was Bunreacht na hÉireann – the Irish Constitution. I wonder if it was the cause of Iceland’s crisis. Perhaps the Greeks had been surreptitiously using the Irish constitution.

If McCarthy’s argument is to hold water, we are forced to draw the conclusion that the Irish constitution must be responsible for the global economic meltdown. Pass me the shovel.

Good Bye to New Visions, Bon Voyage

New to the ranks of journalism is Eamonn Blaney son of the late Neil T. Blaney TD. Recently in the national news papers he recalled his time as recalcitrant youth arguing with his father over matters political. Eamonn blames Irish society for the current financial crisis. He promised to lead us with a “New Vision” (Fís Nua) if we elected him. The voters rejected him, the banks rejected his loan application, and his business venture failed to get off the ground. There is no shame in any of these failures but Eamonn has decided to leave Ireland and as a parting shot he takes a swipe at Irish Society. I decided to wish him bon voyage through his blog and discovered his youthful recalcitrance has blossomed into belligerence and we discover he is under the impression that one of his appendices is bigger than mine.

I recall from memory (therefore paraphrasing here) that Eamonn stated on national radio that he and those standing for election under the umbrella of “New Vision / Fís Nua” had more degrees and master degrees than everyone in the Oireachtas put together. It appeared to be a bold claim at the time but none the less we listened intently to their utterances so we could build a picture for our mind’s eye to envision, a new vision, fís nua. However, nothing new emerged, only the same old descriptions long worn out by the political pundits. What emerged was a clichéd internet analogy of Ireland 2.0. The foundations of this entity were to be based on sovereign default, leaving the Euro currency, linking up with the pound sterling and voting him into parliament. No matter how incoherent the reader/listener thought his argument, we were supposed to believe he had the competence to be a TD because he held a MBA (Master of Business) degree. Thus he keenly appends the letters MBA to his name to bolster his claim of intellectual superiority. It appears he had neglected to examine the role of highly academically qualified people in causing the financial crisis.

To give him credit, he is moderator of his own blog and he therefore has to approve comments before they appear and he published my critical comments. That is, all but one....

Eamonn it has occurred to me that I may have been a little harsh on you. You must be going through a great personal trauma at the moment. I hope that if you understand these points you can move on to great things. I want to explain to you, why I think you’re ire is being misdirected and thus ineffectual.

The entire western (if not the world) economic system is in crisis, some areas have been hit worse than others like Ireland. The property bubble was our first speculative collapse. Most other countries have suffered speculative collapses in the past, for example Tulip mania in the Netherlands, the dot com burst, the 1980s property crash in England ad inf.

Most countries in the western world are not run by politicians they are run by oligarchs who surreptitiously pull the strings of politicians. (Think about it!) No politician, no matter how dictatorial, can stand up to the pressure. Furthermore when a neighbouring country deregulates and a boom in business and employment follows, it is realistically impossible for politicians to resist the pressure not to follow suit and deregulate their banks, financial services and industry. Politicians inclined towards sensible resistance will stand accused of stifling jobs, economic growth and prosperity for the nation. As each nation thus falls, the race to the bottom accelerates and always leads to bust. Academia cheered on the madness with crazy mathematical formulae and frankly economic theories worthy of nothing more than ridicule. The only area academic of study that correctly predicted the bust was history because boom and bust cycles have been a feature of western economies for hundreds of years. We can conclude that academic degrees, master degrees and PhDs are no inoculation against the virus they call stupidity.

Each young generation has forgotten that the previous generations learned hard lessons. In an effort to ensure that such events are never repeated they introduced regulations. Regan and Thatcher started the deregulation cycle that caused the current bust.

Irish people are not faulty; the Irish electorate is not to blame. Turkeys given a choice, will not vote for Christmas. Humans will not vote themselves poor. They will take a chance and hope for the best. Understand these points and you might be able to analyse the problems, apportion the blame where it really lies and advocate a course of action that is likely to bring about positive change.

We all know what went wrong, the time for recrimination is past; it is time to rebuild by each of us pulling together and helping one another out. I have visions of you doing what many Irish people have done before you, going to live in London where they write articles for Irish newspapers with a poison pen. Regrets and recriminations only hurt your soul and the souls of those wronged by them.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/ive-just-had-enough-and-im-leaving-this-country-2660566.html

http://www.eamonnblaney.com/wordpress/blog/2011/05/27/1723/comment-page-1/

Your comments and suggestions are welcome, even critical comments. 

Pat Kenny - Drunkards - Source of Ireland's Crisis.

The Frontline 21-3-2011 - RTE Player 21:46

Pat Kenny:[1] “There is another problem which is for another day but alcohol seems to be central to everything we do and that is right from the top to the bottom and it does affect the quality of our decision making.”

So let’s look at some of the people that carry some responsibility for the current financial crisis and see if you can pick out the drunkards.

John Hurley, Michael Neary, Eugene Sheey, Brian Goggins, Dennis Casey, Dr Michael Walsh, Michael Fingleton, Sean Fitzpatrick, David Drumm, Dept. of Finance, the entire Boards of the following AIB Plc, BOI Plc, Anglo Irish Bank Corp., Irish Life and Permanent Plc, Irish Nationwide Building Society and of the Educational Building Society. Were they all piss heads, as Pat Kenny suggests?

Time Magazine blames the following 25 people for the Financial Crisis: Angelo Mozilo, Phil Gramm, Alan Greenspan, Chris Cox, American Consumers, Hank Paulson, Joe Cassano, Ian McCarthy, Frank Raines, Kathleen Corbet, Dick Fuld, Marion and Herb Sandler, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Stan O'Neal, Wen Jiabao, David Lereah, John Devaney, Bernie Madoff, Lew Ranieri, Burton Jablin, Fred Goodwin, Sandy Weill, David Oddsson and Jimmy Cayne.

I wonder if there is a drink culture in these organisations?

Fannie May, Freddie Mac, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Royal Bank of Scotland, Northern Rock, Hypo Real Estate, Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, Fitch Ratings, Goldman Sachs and many more.

Not to forgetting the Gaussian Copula (mathematical formula for evaluating risk), the real alcoholic substance that got all the financial Gurus drunk.

Could it be that Pat was just the victim of the oldest prejudice? A nation prejudiced against itself, the curse of being born Irish.

---

[1] responding to comments from John Mooney Security correspondent of the Sunday Times on culture of corruption.