Global wealth league - Boom has sparked debt spiral

IT would be easy to gloss over worrying aspects of the upbeat report putting Ireland into second place in the global wealth league. One might get the distinct impression that we are a nation of millionaires.

In reality, however, a decade of house price inflation has catapulted Ireland into second place behind Japan, according to Bank of Ireland.

Depicting a relatively calm picture of the debt spiral, the subliminal message is that Irish people could even afford to borrow more. Bankers would say that, wouldn’t they?