The latest financial calamities to beset world economies have left millions bewildered as to why such disasters should occur in the first place. Many people regard the boom and bust cycles as unavoidable. Readers should be aware the current collapse of financial markets is in fact orchestrated, with deliberate intent. Based on history, the banks will not fail to seesaw the economy and the markets to match their strategies for fooling the public.

The largest banks are doing this now by restricting the money supply – which having been stretched to the maximum during recent years has now begun its rapid contraction, inhibiting borrowing, raising interest rates and tightening credit terms. Various segments of the economy are in a state of rapid contraction as loans become harder to get. House prices have fallen, businesses are beginning to fail.

The Irish government struggles with ignorance of the complex, bank-created system which stirs up panic in the populace to stampede governments into bank-developed 'solutions' that only make the fundamental problems worse and increase the banks' wealth in the longer term. The major banks of this country – the ones the government is lending our money to, and from which the bail-out legislation proposes to buy their bad assets (wouldn't you too like the oppor- tunity to sell off your bad investments to the government!), are delighted with the new found support from the Irish taxpayer. No wonder Brian Lenihan was so eager to have even the lowest paid 170,000 workers shoved into the tax net. What next?

Conor Keane,

Kilmaley, Co Clare.