Jail the bankers...or burn down the banks

THE Garda Fraud Squad must be sent into the banks without further delay.
Trust in our banking system is now ZERO, not just in this country, but throughout the world.
The reckless greed of our banking institutions, led in the charge to make money by the corrupt - and many would say criminal - practices of Anglo Irish Bank and its former director in chief, Sean Fitzpatrick, specifically created the mess we are in.
Their irresponsible lending, unchecked by a lame Financial Regulator and egged on by a poor government, put in place the conditions for the catastrophic economic collapse we have seen over the course of the last 6 months.
What galls people is the irony that more than 1,300 jobs are being lost here EVERY DAY while the taxpayer is being asked to bail out the financial institutions that directly caused these incredible job losses.
The man who didn’t read the report pages that warned of dodgy bank practices, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, says the banks MUST be recapitalised.
He’s right.
Yes, we need to have a banking system that works. Without one, we don’t have an economy.
But unless the recapitalisation of the banks goes hand in hand with a radical PURGE of the bankers who caused the crash, it will be a waste of time, and more importantly taxpayer’s money.
Bankers who presided over illicit practices deserve the SACK. The government should insist on it.
And others in the banking system - specifically those who engineered the secret loan of 7 BILLION from Irish Life & Permanent to Anglo Irish Bank, so as to artificially inflate their deposits and thereby CON the markets - deserve to be hauled in chains before the courts.
The Garda fraud squad should be kicking down the banks’ doors.
It is not a question of if they will go in to investigate the banks, but WHEN.
The government will say they cannot call in the cops, because of the independence of the gardai.
This is true.
However, all it will take for the Fraud Squad to begin their probe is ONE phone call of complaint from any member of the public.
Who will do it?