Friday 15 April 2011

the least respectable job in global journalism

We're huge fans of Michael Lewis at Plenty More Fish. He's currently writing a book about the financial crisis in different countries. The most recent thing he's published on it was in last month's Vanity Fair, on Ireland. It's crackerjack, like you'd expect. Two highlights:

Patrick Neary, Ireland's financial regulator, went on telly in October 2008, wearing 'an insecure little moustache'. Lewis hands over to University College economist Colm McCarthy, who says, 'What happened is that everyone in Ireland had the idea that somewhere in Ireland there was a little wise old man who was in charge of all the money, and this was the first time they'd ever seen this little man ... And then they said saw him and said, Who the fuck was that??? Is that the fucking guy who is in charge of the money??? That's when everyone panicked.'

Bertie Ahern screwed everything up, and he's a hangdog backbencher. To fill the empty hours, he's taken a job writing a sports column for the Rupert Murdoch tabloid News of the World, which might just be the least respectable job in global journalism. Ahern's star, such as it was, has fallen.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Back in the 1980s our then Prime Minister (another crook) coined the acronym GUBU to describe some strange political events. It stands for Grotesque, Unbelievable, Bizarre and Unprecedented, and goes a long way in describing our economic state of affairs at the moment. Great (if depressing) article...

Michelle said...

May I suggest that you google Malcolm MacArthur / Patrick Connolly and GUBU. You might like the story behind it..