Author: Stephen Kinsella

All of the presentations and audio from the Irish Economy conference are archived here.

An inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the 2008 banking guarantee is to be held. Judging by the previous inquiries we’ve had, I wouldn’t expect too much in the way of actual action, though previous inquiries (Moriarty, Morris, Mahon, Planning as examples) have produced lots of paper and lawyers’ fees as by products.

What should the scope of this inquiry be? And what would commenters like asked of the people likely to be involved in such an inquiry?

Just following up on Philip’s earlier post, contrast this (gated) piece from the FT’s Wolfgang Munchau:

The resolution system likely to emerge later this year is also flawed. It will end up protecting only the taxpayer of the creditor countries from bank failures in the debtor countries. But it will not accelerate the resolution of the eurozone’s undercapitalised banks. My suspicion is that the ultimate intent of the Franco-German legislation is to secure the position of their national champion banks.

with this report on redesigning Europe’s banking system, just out from Re-Define, a think tank. Munchau highlights the national political need for renationalisation of finance, which the Re-Define paper argues exactly against this approach.