Nine questions that demand an answer — for our children’s sake

SO, what’s new pussycat? After several sleepy weeks of the silly season, reality reasserts as the kids go back to school.

Media colleagues had particularly slim pickings over the summer, with meagre hard news. The tragic floods in Pakistan and Ivor Callely’s nefarious expenses have been rare bones to chew on. The big beasts of the political jungle have remained dormant. It wouldn’t be the first time for this tranquillity to be disturbed by an eventful September. We can’t forget the momentous September 2008 when our banking system collapsed.

Two years later, you expect the extent of the damage and the route to recovery in the banking sector would be clearly established. That appears to be the case in America. After the mega intervention by the Federal Reserve to tackle the subprime crisis, their financial institutions have been restored to a functioning level.