The Irish banking crisis, like so many others throughout history, illustrates why it is vital to act pre-emptively (as with the mortgage measures announced by the Central Bank this week), to ensure that we don’t face such intractable challenges again.
With rising employment and a steady, albeit slow, working through of household and firm over-indebtedness, a gradual narrowing of the gap between what is and what might have been is in prospect, as long as we do not let borrowing – public or private – get out of hand again. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3