Because maybe they are smart and doing the right thing and we in Ireland were stupid and did the wrong thing..
I'm not sure I can get my head around that the average Dane will not panic in the same way and Irish person will if their savings are threatened.
I'm also not sure that large corporate depositors will not be spooked - though that depends on the ratings agencies to a large extent.
It seems clear from the mess in Ireland that the solution Brian Lenihan chose was incorrect.
There probably was a more correct solution at the time, but would Europe have allowed it?
All we've done is teach bankers that they can do whatever gambles they want and nothing will ever be done to them and the tax payer will pay off their debts.
True to an extent.
Who are the bankers though?
If you mean the shareholders, then they have lost big on their gambles - the only way they could lose bigger is the repealing of the limited liability laws.
If you mean the employees, then the issue is not about the taxpayer covering the losses, the issue is getting rid of them.
The people who may not have learned are the depositors,the bondholders and the ECB i.e. the capital providers. Their crime was in not realising they were gambling.
But then again, could an ordinary depositor in one of the high street banks or a credit union member whose deposits were being invested in bonds of those banks ever even have understood they were taking a gamble? The answer is "no". They were only gambling because the state had not regulated properly.
What's the solution? The capital providers and the state have to take co-responsibility and share the losses. Which is a lot closer to capitalism and a lot better for the state/taxpayer than the current unfair situation.
Is Denmark the same? Not necessarily, a few fringe banks failing do not prove the state was negligent. Sadly that's not the case here and that is why the state has some burden (not the entire burden!) to bear.
