Professor William Black:

In the schema of responsibility, the Irish people are so low on the list that they do not much matter. It is a serious thing. The research on behavioural economics is very, very strong and it is completely ignored by regulatory agencies. Going into this crisis and even afterwards in the United Kingdom, there is all this stuff on consumer education. One cannot try to get everybody in Ireland or the United Kingdom to be able to understand a collared swap, which is what was being pushed for small businesses.

I teach courses in this. At the end of a semester-long course for graduate students, if they understand a collared swap I go out and treat myself. The concept that an average person-----