Anglo and Nationwide are costly driftwood

THE latest news about our soaring fiscal deficit is alarming, to say the least. We’re now told the cost of providing extra capital to Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide will have to be included in the national accounts and will push the government deficit from 11.5% to 19.75% – by far the highest in the developed world.

I am reminded of the movie Master and Commander when, during a severe storm, part of the ship’s mast broke off and fell into the sea, yet it remained entangled and connected to the ship by several of the rigging ropes.

The result was such a severe load on the ship that it threatened to capsize and destroy the ship and all therein. So it was the hard but necessary decision of Captain Lucky Jack (Russel Crowe) to chop off the entangling ropes and either lose one of the sailors, innocently caught up in the fallen rigging, and save the ship or to let all perish.