Moral panic on vultures delays end of arrears crisis
Ireland should have listened to Bill Clinton and tackled the problem years ago
‘Moral panic over vulture funds is only delaying the end of the arrears crisis.’
In 2011 at the Global Irish Economic Forum in Dublin Castle, former US president Bill Clinton sauntered onstage and delivered some home truths. Among them was his diagnosis of a peculiar Irish problem – our reticence for dealing, once and for all, with our mortgage arrears crisis.
In his easy, drawling, homespun style, Clinton told the room that Ireland – then barely one-third of the way through the bailout – was facing many major economic decisions, but none was bigger than how to deal with its mortgage problem.