Oireachtas banking inquiry - We are all to blame for the boom to bust

Despite our predilection to blame the banks for everything bad, the reality is that, while our financial institutions were mostly responsible for our economic crash, they were by no means the only transgressors.

The Government’s ignorance, the banks’ gung-ho attitude, the Central Bank’s lassitude, the financial regulator’s laissez faire policy, and the general population’s unbridled glee during the boom all contributed to the crash.

That is the view of the Finnish financial expert Peter Nyberg who yesterday became the first person to give evidence to the Oireachtas banking inquiry.