Madam, – It is with some incredulity that I read the call for a new Thatcherite figure as part of a solution to the problems of our economy (April 24th).
One of the striking features of the prevailing crisis is the attempt by some commentators to transfer the blame for our current plight from those who are responsible for it to those who were not at fault for bringing it about. The unfettered market forces and ideology of greed unleashed by Margaret Thatcher and her accomplice Ronald Reagan led directly to a situation where sheer unmitigated lust for profit seems to have been the only guiding principle in the entire banking sector in deciding on how much money to lend, and to whom.
This led directly to the crisis in the subprime mortgage sector, which spread in turn to the entire financial sector.
We all know the rest, yet some people persist in alleging that somehow the trade unions, among others, are responsible for what has happened.
What is deeply alarming is the relative lack thus far of a rhetoric in public discourse that calls for a fundamental and permanent reining in of the activities of the banks, so that the irresponsible and unregulated behaviour so characteristic of the market forces beloved by Thatcher and her ilk becomes a thing of the past.
If we are to find a way out of this mess, we need an anti-Thatcherite figure, not a Thatcherite one, and more to the point we need an honest, democratic, anti-Thatcherite consensus, instead of shameful attempts to lay the blame for the current mess at the feet of ordinary workers and trade union members. We have been presented with the bill for someone else’s feckless behaviour.
I for one refuse to accept the blame along with it. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – While my wife and I are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary on our first trip to Ireland, at Ballymaloe, I can’t help noticing the fast-worsening plight of Ireland.
It seems to me as a retired US civil service budget officer and a former New York City international banking officer, (now a real estate broker in the US), that since Ireland is part of the European Union that your Government’s actions to fix the Irish economy would only work if you were a stand-alone economy and if the private sector were to cut prices to correspond to public and private pension, public active government/ civil service, and private sector salary and wage cuts.
In short, cutting pensions,wages, and Government spending in a textbook sense helps quicken and deepen your depression.
It might help more to have Irish Government guarantees behind loans to help sustain the total economy, which should in turn be backed up by reinsurance from the EU, other world banks; and the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland granting Ireland as a national economy immediate, large SDUs (Special Drawing Rights) to help pull the country out of the depression.
While I was personally careful over the past 14 years as a real estate broker not to work with poor credit mortgage applicants, it was sheer greed which drove many in the mortgage loan and banking industry in the US and worldwide to fund/finance uncreditworthy folks believing that “everyone” deserves a home.
This is only true if one’s credit history proves a level of personal finance maturity as measured by a strong credit score. Weak credit score mortgages blended into bundles of securitised mortgages are what sunk the world boat to put us in the economic mess we are in today. Government spending in and of itself, as long as it is a reasonable percentage compared with the year to year growth in the Irish national net economy, is not your enemy. Greed in the private sector, coupled with excessive liberalism pushing to make mortgage loans to unqualified credit-score applicants are the culprits.
Good luck and please don’t make matters worse by cutting Government spending too much and please stop cutting pay. Consumer spending and confidence are destroyed by pay cuts. – Yours, etc,