We are facing stagnation unless ECB can act

It takes a long time to recover from a banking crisis. If we’re unsure of that, we need but look around and notice that we are still talking and fretting about ours.

Seven years ago, Irish bank share prices were at or near all-time highs. Lending for house purchases and deposits inflows to banks were also at all-time highs, as were house prices. And then it all began to unravel. The children born at the bursting of the bubble, who will carry the cost most of their working life, are now in senior infants or first class.

Still it isn’t fixed. Only this week do we see the first criminal trial arising from the banking shenanigans.