Cowen on rack over 'homemade meltdown'... THE banking meltdown that cost taxpayers billions of euro was a result of "homemade" decisions and a government that thought "the party could last forever", two official reports revealed yesterday. In hugely damning findings, one report by two international banking experts pointed the finger of blame squarely at Taoiseach Brian Cowen for economic policies when he was Finance Minister. The reports will now be used by a commission of inquiry and an Oireachtas committee to look at what triggered the crash. But the inquiry will not be looking at a string of calamitous government budgetary policies to which Mr Cowen was central and it is not clear if the Taoiseach will be called before the committee. Former International Monetary Fund officials Klaus Regling and Max Watson said alarm bells should have sounded when the property boom and lending trends in the banking sector expanded -- as far back as 2003. They added that v...
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