The Anglo tapes - Banking inquiry now essential

Details of the leaked transcript conversation between two officials of the Anglo Irish Bank — John Bowe, director of capital markets, and Peter Fitzgerald, director of retail banking — make for distressing reading.

Listening to the cynical, flippant nature of their conversation, interspersed with bursts of laughter, makes for even more disquieting listening.

The whole thing is outrageous. With the benefit of hindsight, it became all the more shocking, in view of the enormity of the ensuing economic disaster.