Banksters

Description

1929... On Wall Street, during the worst financial crisis the world had ever seen, the word Banksters was coined to describe those ruthless individuals who had gambled away the country s wealth. 2009... The phrase Banksters is resurrected as David Murphy and Martina Devlin describe the shocking story of how the Irish banking system was brought to its knees by a corrupt elite driven by profit and greed.Banksters examines the events which triggered the near collapse of Ireland s banking system, when it unfolded that a privileged golden circle , caught up in a frenzy of greed and opportunism, had gambled and lost with the deposits and pensions of the Irish people.It charts how an unprecedented orgy of over-borrowing fuelled by bankers who threw out the rule book on lending and reckless tax breaks from cavalier politicians caused a massively over-inflated property bubble. While bank shares climbed to dizzying heights, profits soared and executives earned enormous bonuses, those who cried stop! were shouted down. But there was no promised soft landing when, in September 2008, bankers overnight went from being pillars of society to pariahs. When the word Ireland became synonymous with corruption in the global lending markets. When a generation learned it would pay a high price for the arrogance and greed of its business elite. Banksters is a hard-hitting read that, were it fiction, might not be believed. In describing the key players, their motivations, personalities and lavish lifestyles it poses the all-important questions: who is answerable and will all the culprits be called to account?

As RTE s business correspondent, David Murphy has been in the front line of the banking crisis daily. The 2008 winner of Business Broadcast Journalist of the year, he is a former deputy business editor of the Irish Independent. Martina Devlin is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist writing weekly columns for the Irish Independent and the Sunday World. Previously she spent seven years working on Fleet Street. Shortlisted twice for the Irish Book Awards, she is 2009 Writer in Residence at the Princess Grace Library in Monaco.