The global banking crisis of 2008, caused by the reckless behaviour of American lenders, spread shockwaves around the world that are still being felt today.
Banking giants such as Lehmann brothers & Bear Stearns collapsed and other banks scrambled to secure ‘bailouts’ from their governments to avoid going the same way.
In Ireland, the downturn in the property market caused the Anglo Irish Bank to approach government regulators and the Central Bank.
Only now, recordings of conversations between bank executives John Bowe and Peter Fitzgerald have come out, angering the Irish people.
The recordings reveal their strategy of underplaying exactly how much money was needed so as to draw the government into supporting them again and again.
What’s shocking is that bank executives were able to, in their own words, just pluck a figure out of thin air without government regulators asking to see any accounts. Such was the hubris of the banks at the time.
Economists are outraged at the revelations
Incredibly, they proceed to laugh about the fact the money won’t ever be repayed
People have reacted furiously and it has prompted Prime Minister Enda Kenny to launch an inquiry into the scandal which ended up costing the Irish taxpayer 30 million euros.
