A highly disturbing report released today may go to the core of the financial mess we find ourselves in. According to Reuters, “a quarter of Wall Street (and UK) executives see wrongdoing as a key to success, according to a survey by whistleblower law firm Labaton Sucharow.”

The “survey of 500 senior executives” also found that:

If the Government think they 'won' the Fiscal Treaty vote they are in denial. By John Farrell Clark.

The Government may have won the vote but they clearly did not win the confidence of a vast majority of the citizens. If they think they won and have a mandate, they are far more in a state of denial than one would have thought possible.

Establishing a cabinet sub-committee to study the problem of mortgage arrears, which Enda Kenny has indicated he’s doing, and wishing for the banks to “show a greater urgency” is simply not good enough. By John Farrell Clark.

To surrender to fear is to surrender to perpetual austerity for future generations. By John Farrell Clark.

At the height of the Depression in 1933 Franklin Roosevelt spoke these words in his first inaugural address:

“This great nation will endure…will revive and will prosper…let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless,  unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

During the boom years both the Irish government and the Central Bank were fast asleep at the switch when it came to regulating property lending. As such, they are now obligated to come up with a solution to the problem of residential mortgage arrears. By John Farrell Clark.

The household tax boycott is a sign that the Troika has finally gone too far in intruding on the internal affairs of Ireland while leaving the bondholders protected. By John Farrell Clark.

As the song goes from the musical, “the Music Man”:

“Well, either you’re closing your eyes

To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge

Or you are aware of the calibre of disaster indicated

By the presence of a pool table in your community.

Ya got trouble, my friend, right here,

I say, trouble here in River City.”

Rather than 'burn the bondholders' Ireland should lobby for its debt to be put in the category of a 'work-out', writes John Farrell Clark.

Back in the days when I was a commercial banker in America, and later in Europe, a career that spanned thirty years during which we sometimes had to say “no” when it came to loan requests because it was in the best interest of both the bank and the customer, we would at times have problem debtors to deal with.