We are all struggling to understand terms like senior bond holders, unsubordinated debt and sovereign default. All we know for sure is that if things were bad before they are worse now, as we anxiously cast around for anyone who knows what to do, or has the liathróidí to do it.

David McWilliams has been on Newstalk explaining what he thinks our new Government has to do – write off the portion of our national debt that is unguaranteed, and give those with guaranteed debt shares in the banks in return for it. The logic is that unsecured debt is exactly that - unsecured. Those who loaned the money to us knew exactly what the risks were, so too bad. Those who have secured debt need to be incentivised to get the banks working again, which they will be if they own a chunk of them. That's capitalism.

The alternative is that Ireland Inc sinks deeper and deeper into debt as the interest we are charged on the money we need for everyday housekeeping rises steeply, and the massive debt we already owe gets bigger and bigger by the second because we haven't a hope of making the repayments.

The bit our new Government needs to think about is that the German and French Eurocrats who are complaining loudest about the Irish problem are actually very pleased about the situation, and stand to benefit hugely from it. Their sanctimonious condemnation of our reckless spending is a fine distraction from reality. They loaned us the money in the first place, and stand to gain years of hefty interest payments as our children, and our children's children, work to pay it back.

If we write off the unsecured debt someone somewhere will undoubtedly suffer. We will hear about pensioners in Dussledorf or Nice whose schemes are now empty. But the money in those schemes will have been gambled away, not by us, but by the hedge fund operators who deliberately placed it in unsecured funds, in the hope of making a quick buck, rather than putting the money somewhere safe, but less profitable.

The fault lies with the money men.