Celtic Tiger

As the banks move to sort out their bad debts, it’s imperative that the state also tries to alleviate negative equity problem facing young workers.

We are now reaching the endgame. Few are in denial any more. The situation is dire and we need real leadership to get us out of this mess. Businesses across the country are going to the wall, unemployment is going through the roof and people who have been trading for years say this is much worse than the 1980s.

Every evening, there is a little ritual in our house. Our young children, having been settled by their mother, demand dad tells them a story ‘‘from your head’’ before bed. This lark involves all classes of adventures, heroes and implausible tales starring themselves as central characters.

Yesterday I spoke to a friend — let’s call him Mike — a hard working, non-greedy, frugal individual. This is not the sort of bloke who went out and splurged in the boom. He has a house, a car and, up until recently, a steady job. He lives for his children, his family and yet…

THE end of partnership might not be such a bad thing after all. At the moment, it is difficult to turn on the TV or radio without hearing someone lamenting the demise of the national pay talks and warning of dire consequences.

This is the opportunity to push through reforms and market the entire programme as a necessary exercise in ‘tough love’

The crisis in Ireland is monetary, and the bank has to assess what needs to be done and tell the truth.

This weekend, Rupert Murdoch was door-stepped by a bunch of journalists. Speaking off the cuff into a sea of microphone heads, the veteran media mogul summed up, with clarity and directness, what he saw as the problem facing the world economy.

The longer the banks go on protecting their developer clients, the bigger their problems are eventually going to be.

The Irish banking system is facing meltdown. The choice for the banks is now simple: they allow one of the big developers to go under or they risk going under themselves.

Don’t panic! The worst thing we can do when faced with an economic slump is to lose the head. Yes, the economy is moving into recession — but this has been known for a while. Anyone who cared to listen to a taxi-driver, let alone look at the hard numbers, has been concerned for a few months now. We are where we are, and now it’s time to formulate a plan to get the economy moving again, so that a serious situation does not become a crisis.

The Central Bank must move, as the Fed did in the US, to prop up Irish banks before a major catastrophe.

Ireland is now going into the early stages of a classic bad debt cycle. While many are still talking about the credit crunch, the crunch is only a mild forerunner of the greater challenge.