Monday, December 28, 2009

2010: From "Who's to blame?" to "What's next?"

As 2009 draws to a close, many column inches and front pages are still being devoted to the transgressions of the former chief executives and chairmen of our ailing banks. In the run up to Christmas, the big story was how Charlie McCreevy and other Fianna Fail politicians of varying prominence availed of generous property-related loans with the minimum of fuss and paperwork. The newspaper and broadcast media realise that the dial on the national psyche is still turned to anger and they would be fools if they failed to capitalise on this. But in my opinion they are doing us a slight disservice. While it is completely appropriate to look into the banking, regulatory and governmental failure that has helped to nobble our economy, the media should also be asking one decidedly more important question - "What's next?"