Budget Decision Quotes
He told the government that the bank was 7 billion Euros short, and after much soul searching, the Irish government agreed to assume the debts of the bank lest all the depositors would only get a small fraction of their deposits back. However, the real deficit that the Irish government had to cover was many times the 7 billion. This led to the complete collapse of the Irish economy. Bowe and the other bank officials maintained that they thought the deficit was only 7 billion when they told that to the government. Four years later, confidential audio tapes of some telephone conversations between Bowe and other bank officials turned up and it was clear that Bowe had picked the 7 billion number out of thin air. It was a number that Bowe thought would be large enough that the Government would have to bail the bank out, but not so large that the government officials might conclude that the bailout cost was too high and it would be better to let the bank fail. By 2013 neither Bowe or any of the other Anglo Irish Bank officials had gone to jail or even been indicted. But millions of Irish citizens had their personal and business economies destroyed. See {635438} for a reaction to the exposure of the meeting.
