Wild West banking hasn't gone away you know

The corrupt political/administrative system that brought Ireland to its knees in 2008 is still in place.

For a short period of time after the rotten and incompetent Cowen government fell there was panic among the elite that have ruled and ruined Ireland for the last several decades that their time was at an end.

That panic has now receded with the knowledge that the enormous cost to be paid for the decades of corruption has been safely transferred onto the shoulders of the current and future generations of ordinary Irish citizens.

Nowhere is the relief more evident that the old rotten regime is still in place more evident than in the financial sector.

Recent calls from a number of bankers for a relaxation of financial regulation are a clear indication that the system is almost back to its abnormal and destructive worst.

Just last week deputy chairman of AIB Dr. Michael Somers revealed that international banks have told him that they were pulling out of Ireland because of over-regulation.

Now let’s be clear about what’s happening here.

Prior to the economic collapse in 2008 there was absolutely no financial regulation whatsoever.

Banks and other financial institutions regularly engaged in blatant criminal activity without any response from so-called regulatory agencies.

And let’s not fool ourselves (again).

Some international banks may be complaining about regulation but I suspect that the real pressure is coming from within the Irish financial sector.

After all, the gangsters who infest the sector have never experienced any kind of regulation never mind actual law enforcement.

The problem for the Irish political system is, of course, the presence of the Troika.

In the good old days Irish politicians made sure that banks had a clear field to rob and plunder at will without having to worry about inconveniences such as law enforcement.

That Wild West financial environment is not so easy to maintain these days since the arrival of professional regulators in the form of the Troika.

But be absolutely sure about one thing. As soon as ‘regulation’ is back within the hands of our corrupt political/administrative system it will be the Wild West all over again.