{"product_id":"9780141939117","title":"The Bankers: How the Banks Brought Ireland to Its Knees","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs recently as 2007, the Irish economy was still booming and the state coffers overflowing; by the end of 2008, the state faces an unprecedented crisis. The story of the Irish banking collapse is a tawdry tale of collusion, back-scratching and denial among bankers, developers, regulators and politicians.    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the story Shane Ross - independent Senator, long-time champion of citizens against misbehaving corporations, and Journalist of the Year 2009 - tells in \u003ci\u003eThe Bankers\u003c\/i\u003e, going behind the scenes and the headlines to explain what happened, how it happened and who made it happen. They're all here: Sean FitzPatrick, Michael Fingleton and the other bank bosses; Patrick Neary and his colleagues in Ireland's failed regulatory apparatus; the property developers, whose borrowings ruined the banks, and many of whom are now personally ruined; and the politicians, whose policies helped inflate the property bubble and who have allowed the banks to dictate the terms of their bail-out. Shane Ross knows the stories of these people and what they got up to, and in \u003ci\u003eThe Bankers\u003c\/i\u003e he makes sense of a scandal that will haunt Ireland for years to come.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books, Limited","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47119564439792,"sku":"9780141939117","price":11.27,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780141939117_p0.jpg?v=1763656622","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780141939117","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}