Irish politician: Bankers did more damage than the IRA
The Irish economy is in a mess. Real GDP has fallen by about 10 percent. The deficit is over 30 percent of GDP, of which 20 percent is the cost of bailing out banks. The housing market has collapsed. The banks are teetering on the brink, sucking up seemingly infinite amounts of taxpayer resources.
How did this happen? Up until the crisis, Ireland was lauded as the celtic tiger, the envy of the world. It adopted policies that seemed more American than European – lax regulation, nudge-and-wink supervision, low taxes. And it grew strongly. But this growth was based on an ephemeral housing boom, and it all came crashing down. Ireland is suffering more than the US because of the small size of the country, and the relative size of the banks in such a small pond.
The Irish people are angry, but they are sane. They know exactly who is to blame – in first place, the bankers. There are no “green tea parties” railing against government and taxes, and trying to kick out (Polish) immigrants. Leo Varadkar, a rising politician in the Fine Gael party (which allies with the Christian Democratic wing in the European parliament), has said that the bankers did more damage than the IRA and should be “treated like subversives”. “The public are furious that none of these people have been brought to book and they are right and we cannot move on until they are prosecuted,” he said.
At first blush, I though Leo was making yet another of the wild statements he is famous for. But then I thought about it. A quick google search gives the estimates of those murdered by IRA terrorists at around 1800. What about the human costs of the global financial crisis? The International Labor Organization says more tha 30 million lost their jobs. The World Bank says more than 64 million were pushed into extreme poverty all over the world, and that up to 50,000 babies might have died in sub-Saharan Africa.
So, Varadkar might have a point. This crisis was caused by financial sector greed. And yet, they go unpunished, and even rewarded.
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To add to this: a while ago I was browsing the Catechism looking for something else and I stumbled upon this passage:
“The fifth commandment forbids doing anything with the intention of indirectly bringing about a person’s death. the moral law prohibits exposing someone to mortal danger without grave reason, as well as refusing assistance to a person in danger.
The acceptance by human society of murderous famines, without efforts to remedy them, is a scandalous injustice and a grave offense. Those whose usurious and avaricious dealings lead to the hunger and death of their brethren in the human family indirectly commit homicide, which is imputable to them.” (2269)
Studies have made it clear that the spike in food prices, particularly staples, that happened a couple of years ago were the direct result of financial speculation by international banks and investment houses. The real estate market had collapsed, and they were looking for new investments. The Guardian reports that we are facing another food crisis one which will almost certainly be made worse by financial speculation:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/25/impending-global-food-crisis
Hmmm. It looks like, according the Real GDP of Ireland was growing at between 4 and 10% in any given year from 1990 to 2008, and then has taken a hit of 3% and 6% shrinkage in 2008 and 2009. For 2010 so far, the Real GDP appears flat.
This means that the recession has basically set Ireland back two years in terms of economic growth.
I’m not clear that necessarily means that the previous 20 years of growth were totally illusory, and that Ireland would be better of if it had maintained its 60s and 70s era policies and remained one of the poorer countries in Europe. Nor does it necessarily seem like the decades of civil war which the IRA was instrumental in during the 20s and 30s were necessarily better for Ireland than the last two years of economic troubles.
But then, I don’t have a feel for local events… Maybe a good old fashioned civil war would be preferable to a recession in some peoples’ minds. After all, then one wouldn’t have the annoyance of seeing bankers make money, and that’s pretty bad.