James Lawless – View from the Tracks

Back on the old sod the other thing that struck me after all this focus on Brown was the similarities to our own Taoiseach back home. The takeover process was almost identical of course, but the difficulties they now face are also the same beast. And in both cases, largely out of their control. The whole global economy is in a wobble and like it or not in open economies like UK and Ireland when Wall street sneezes we catch a cold. Alan Sugar gave a very good defence of Brown making these points and the exact argument could be made for Brian Cowen.

The whole subprime thing was crazy to start out with I always thought. Why not go down the pub, search out the guy whos barred from everywhere else (and the bookies), that noone will even lend a light to never mind the price of a pint, then go out of your way to give him your last fiver. And then come crying when he doesn’t turn up to get you back the next day? Effectively that’s what the financial institutions did in some cases. Only the clever ones sold off the debt before they became bad.

It does seem wrong though that we are so defenceless to the ways of the wider world. I think the Irish banks and government could have sought a bit more fiscal rectitude at the height of the boom. Even the mainstream banks had become a little ridiculous (remember those “presigned cheques” coming through the door – don’t see them any more) but there were very little brakes put on them. Partly it comes down to individual responsibility too, noone put a gun to heads to accept the various credit “offers”. Its market forces versus societal management again. It depends whether we see government as having a responsibility to provide safeguards for people or whether it should allow free will and the implication that consequences must be individually realised also. There does seem to be a sense of shock in some quarters that this money now has to be paid back. Or that more of it is not now available. Personally I think a normalistion of property prices was long overdue. A survey claiming average household wealth has dropped is purely hinged on artifically inflated paper prices in the first place. It is undoubtedly tough for people who were caught on the turn but for the majority it should make it easier to buy a house in future or to trade up or even move on when things inevitably settle down in the medium term. And if you have a roof over your head in the meantime well that can never be a bad thing whatever the latest valuation might say.