Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

In his introduction, Professor Lane set the discussion and processes in the euro area within a global economic and monetary system. I would like to dwell a little on that. He said in the written statement with which we were furnished that it was vital to understand that there were several structural changes in the international economy and the international financial system from the mid-1990s, so the creation of a single currency could not be viewed as the sole or even the primary factor behind the extraordinary growth in national financial flows during the pre-crisis period. If I pushed Professor Lane to say what was the primary factor in the explosion of credit worldwide from the mid-1990s, could he outline one, or maybe two?