Economic prognosis - Weight of criticism is dispiriting

THE Financial Times yesterday added its t’uppence worth to the groundswell of opposition to the Government’s economic, banking and job-creation policies.

In a highly critical and unflinching commentary, the newspaper dispiritingly described the latest plan to try to confront the chaos caused by Anglo Irish as “another round of three-card monty”.

The piece makes for dismal reading and it cannot be avoided. It asserted: “Unhappily, what is emerging in Ireland is how staggering bank losses are. It is time to let them fall where they should: on unsecured creditors once shareholders are wiped out. But Irish leaders are prolonging the uncertainty in the hope that zombie banks will, Lazarus-like, come back to life.”