"...nobody else [saw it coming]”

A report in the Irish Times today has this choice quote from the OECD secretary-general:

“We did not see it coming certainly. And nobody else did,”

This quote is in reference to the collapse of the banks. The OECD had said last year that the banks were in good shape, and would do grand.

Reading this, I am reminded of the numerous occasions An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, has said something similar, generally along the lines of "nobody saw the recession coming".

This annoys me, it infuriates me, I would like to add a string of profanity here, I am enraged by these comments. Why?

Lots of people saw both the crash coming, and the issues with the banks. I have no economic training, but hell I could see that the boom was going to end, I was saying it for years, it was clearly unsustainable. Now, I had no idea when, so I'm not claiming some genius thoughts, just some common sense thinking.

However, there were plenty of economists who did see this coming, with lots to back them up. David McWilliams is perhaps the best known of them, he was writing in 2006 about the problems with the economy and 2007 about the problems with our banks. There were others too.

Clearly it makes more political sense to be revisionist when it comes to history, claim that everybody, even if they didn't vote for you, agreed with you at the time, and somehow that makes your wrong decision ok.

Politicians need to start taking some responsibility. Stand up and be counted; say "yes, we made a mistake." I doubt it will happen though, it does seem the politicians and their advisors are in their own little bubble, completely disconnected from reality.

As the economy slides further down the tubes, my next prediction is: "A breaking point will be reached, mass protests will occur, and if the government doesn't resign then, the 'r word' will change from recession to revolution."