So the IMF and ECB tidy up the emergency loans and hope that Ireland is saved, but are we really rescued? It looks like we have converted cheap loans for dearer loans. On the positive side, it looks like, finally, Anglo Irish Bank is sorted and will be closed. But how will the other banks manage and will they get enough funds to lend out to business in the near term? Will mortgages be available again for home purchasers? These points are critical and were not really answered last weekend.
Let us be fairly truthful Ireland cannot afford this level of lending. The major European and British banks are keeping the Irish loans at 100 per cent in their books. Surely, it is not fair that the Irish taxpayer should pick up the losses. We think not, this is a pretext of a solution. If by 2013 it does not work, then there will be write offs. Why not do that next year and stop strangling the Irish economy.
See The Munster Express newspaper for full story or subscribe to our PDF version.
85 Billion Euro Bailout
You are so right Kieran. We are converting cheap loans into dearer loans. This bailout is a sellout of our country. It is not a simple loan. It is a “rape of the Irish people” according to Gonzalo Lira , Global Economic Expert. In an interview on Max Keiser 100 rt, Lira says Ireland is cursed with terrible political decisions which guaranteed huge bank debt, far too big for the country to carry.
AIB falsified its books to get bailout money. What did the banks do with the bailout money? Awarded themselves huge bonuses, a practice that continues to go on. Ireland was solvent and meeting its payments until politicians guaranteed the bank debt in 2008, on the shoulders of the Irish taxpayer, a millstone around their necks. Is Ireland really bankrupt? Lira says no, not if we let the banks fail. Are Irish politicians corrupt? Maybe, says Lira, but they are certainly stupid, incompetent and running amuck with short term thinking.
Over 50,000 people marched in Dublin on Nov. 27 protesting. Many see the bailout as sinking the ship. Why is Ireland in so much trouble, all of a sudden? Thank Germany’s Angela Merkel. Three week ago she talked about senior bond holders taking a haircut. The entire bond market panicked and refused to lend to Ireland at affordable rates. What was Merkl talking about? Senior bond holders who hold Ireland’s debt are Germany and the UK. “Taking a haircut” means they don’t want to lose a penny. Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner for Monetary Affairs also says “no haircuts for senior bondholders” .
What’s so bad about the 85 billion euro bailout? Fist, its at a high interest rate, average 5.8%, a repayment of 5 billion euro a year on interest rate alone, 20 % of tax revenue. Right off the top before any other bills are paid. Second, 35 billion earmarked for the banks. Money down a black hole. But, wait a minute, Olli Rehn say its self financing, what does he mean? Ireland must find 17.5 billion from its pension funds and reserves for bailout. Ireland has one major asset, its pension fund, and that’s going down a black hole too. Goodbye pensions. Lira says the piranha banks want to loot it, before moving on to Portugal, Spain and Italy to strip their assets. Divide and Conquer.
Who will gain from this besides the banks? Germany, of course, who started the panic. Keiser and Stacey Herbert a political analyst, say Germany will gain in two ways. The cheap euro will increase their export markets while their competition is crippled with debt. Why are they pushing the bailout through, when Ireland is fully funded until Summer 2011? Good question. What’s the rush? My father always told me “Follow the Money”. Huge interest payments out of Ireland, the Pension fund gone, 35 billion to the banks. You do the math.
Max Keiser warns ” Wake up Ireland, ‘you’re being sold down the river by your own government in bed with the bankers, pushing debt ridden junk loans on Ireland. You’ll become a vassal corporate state of the international banking cartel”. Lira advises ” Default on the debt and restructure the Irish banks. Start off with a clean slate. Take the hit now” instead of mortgaging the future of your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Later will be a lot worse.” Iceland didn’t take on bank debt. They let banks fail, took the hit and are now rebuilding.”
Nigel Farage, UKIP MEP, blasted the European Parliament for taking away Ireland’s democracy, on 24 Nov, 2010. In an emotional speech, he asked “who the hell do you think you people are?” Why did Olli Rehn tell Ireland they have to agree their budget, before they are allowed to have an election? “If you rob people of their identity and democracy all they are left with is nationalism and violence. You are very very dangerous people indeed.”
John Wolfe, the founder of of Seniors Solidarity Party, has legally challenged the government’s constitutional right to accept a bailout from the EU and IMF, on the grounds that Irish people did not vote for taking on a massive debt of 85 billion euro or taking money out of the Pension Fund. Sinn Fein is taking a different tack, on the basis of whether politicians can sign an international agreement without putting it to a vote before the Dail.
I ask: What is the big rush to get the bailout through? Why can we not have an election and time to weigh our options, when we are funded until next summer? Who are we rescuing? Ireland or the banks?
Although the bailout was approved by EU Finance Ministers on Nov 29 it still has to pass the Dail on Dec 7. A key date for Ireland. We are standing at the Rubicon of our national sovereignty.
References:
Nigel Farage “Who the Hell do you think you are” YouTube
Max Keiser 100 rt video
From an Irish perspective, better we’re one of the first to the trough than after Spain and Portugal, should they succumb (the latter definitely will, and who can trust the Italians?).
So, Ireland accepts the bailout (a loan, not a handout!). Then, Ireland default on the bank gaurantee (for investors, safeguard deposits/mortgages – only reason it was introduced was so we “wouldn’t lose face in the intl markets” we have done now by being bullied by Europe into acceptance) and default on the loan (sorry print merchants – see below). At that stage, I’d like to see us exit the Euro and dictate our own monetary policy.
As the ‘booming’ English Manufacturing/Export/Purchasing Index (don’t know which but was mentioned in the national media today) suggests – Blighty is doing well! But only through printing money out of thin air and being able to decide their own interest rates. Google “fiat money” – it’s an interesting concept. Ultimately, as a country, you can print as much money as you want until the cartridge runs out. Then you just get a new cartridge. It’s the equivalent of me saying “I need £20″and just hitting print on my PC. US are doing the same – just deferring the reality.
Germany has done the same – Ireland aside, Germany are scared of the € failing as the 4th Reich will lose their dominance in dictating the way of Europe. They need Paddy and Euro to be seen to succeed to protect their facist dominace. Recently seen as the 3rd biggest economy in the world, Germany are ultimately fooling an additional 300 million people into believing that they are not after their own best interests. An extra 300m on board? That’s bargaining power! But of course they are looking after only their interests. Do they care about 4m people in Ireland? No. 45m in Spain, where 1 in 4 don’t work? Nein, bitte. Meanwhile, Germany is “booming” at the moment apparently.
I read an Economics theory in 1998 that suggested the Euro would never work. And it’s being proven right, it can’t.