Quote of the day

infamous

Great quote from David McWilliams today regarding the failures of the banking system "the alarm bells were ringing but the bankers didn't hear as they had their ears stuffed with money"

dan_d

A good quote, but he's beginning to annoy me.

Can he say anything constructive? Anything other than "I told you so"??

RichardAnd

That's a pretty weak quote to be honest. Here's a better one:

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

One of my favourites from one of the finest writers who ever lived. If more people paid heed to words of wisdom like this, we'd be better off.

OMD

dan_d wrote: »

A good quote, but he's beginning to annoy me.

Can he say anything constructive? Anything other than "I told you so"??

I know he comes out with ides that he knows will never be taken on like "leave the Euro". He knows it won't be done so after he can say people should have listened to me.

The problem is once the government were stupid enough to listen to him and he managed to convince them to have a bank guarantee. Stupidest decision every in the history of this country and it was David McWilliams's idea. He had to push hard to get it accepted by Lenihan, yet some people think this monumental idiot is the one to get us out of the mess we are in. Beggars belief.

OMD

RichardAnd wrote: »

That's a pretty weak quote to be honest. Here's a better one:

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

One of my favourites from one of the finest writers who ever lived. If more people paid heed to words of wisdom like this, we'd be better off.

That's Michael Jackso is it? The man in the mirror?:D

RichardAnd

OMD wrote: »

That's Michael Jackso is it? The man in the mirror?:D

Ha!. Nope, it's Leo Tolstoy but good guess. The MJ lyric was:

If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change

Would have been a good one too, same idea

Scofflaw

Let's see...does the quote tell me anything I didn't know? No. Is it actually a pithily accurate description of the problems in the banks? Again, no. Does it help at all, in any way? A third no.

This is why we have reports like the Nyberg one - so we're not reliant for analysis on vacuous twerps like McWilliams.

irritated,
Scofflaw

Raskolnikov

Scofflaw wrote: »

Let's see...does the quote tell me anything I didn't know? No. Is it actually a pithily accurate description of the problems in the banks? Again, no. Does it help at all, in any way? A third no.

Sounds an awful lot like the Nyberg report, if you ask me.

later12

infamous wrote: »

Great quote from David McWilliams today regarding the failures of the banking system "the alarm bells were ringing but the bankers didn't hear as they had their ears stuffed with money"

Well done David McWilliams, third class, for that whimsical little persiflage. An Oscar Wilde of the future, boys and girls, as he tosses his fringe so gaily, in that devil-may-care trademark flourish, with all of his homework done. There he goes, with his gold star, showing it to the rest of the class, yes that's quite enough... David, sit down, David.

And now, back to the financial crisis....

P. Breathnach

infamous wrote: »

Great quote from David McWilliams today regarding the failures of the banking system "the alarm bells were ringing but the bankers didn't hear as they had their ears stuffed with money"

That tells us more about McWilliams than about anything else: soundbites are more important to him than meaning.

Laminations

Raskolnikov wrote: »

Sounds an awful lot like the Nyberg report, if you ask me.

Yeah just less expensive

RichardAnd

Honestly, it's a crappy quote that says absolutely nothing and simply panders the population. A better one could be:

The alarm bells should have been ringing but we'd taken out the batteries.

Something like that .

Scofflaw

RichardAnd wrote: »

Honestly, it's a crappy quote that says absolutely nothing and simply panders the population. A better one could be:

The alarm bells should have been ringing but we'd taken out the batteries.

Something like that .

Or "the alarm bells were ringing but nobody wanted to be the first person to rush for the exits".

Mind you, any attempt to encapsulate €70bn's worth of banking disaster in a soundbite is going to be pretty silly.

cordially,
Scofflaw

RichardAnd

Scofflaw wrote: »

Or "the alarm bells were ringing but nobody wanted to be the first person to rush for the exits".

Mind you, any attempt to encapsulate €70bn's worth of banking disaster in a soundbite is going to be pretty silly.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Pretty much but McWilliams quote is misleading too. When the alarm bells were ringing, the bankers' ears were most certainly not stuffed with money, that's the problem

Hayte

The alarm bells were ringing but do they really ring if theres nobody around to hear it?

:zen: