Taken within the last hour.
You couldn’t make it up.
And we haven’t.
No Photoshop trickery.
Jewish people call it chutzpah.
Brian Cowen: “Today’s movement on the bond markets are part of the ebbs and flows which have been a feature of the markets in recent months.”
The rest of us (including the guy with the brolly): “Aggghhhhhhh.”
John Gormley has told RTE News he will be watching tonight’s documentary on our economic collapse with “great interest”.
Freefall (9.35pm, RTE 1) reveals the government was told of Anglo’s insolvency by executives from Bank of Ireland and AIB – hours before it signed off on the bank guarantee.
This will be news to John because on that particular night he chose to stay in bed.
Peter Boone of The London School of Economics and Simon Johnson, former chief economist with the IMF have penned a blog about the Irish economy for the New York Times. Ho hum, you say. Not another one.
This is a little different:
“Ireland had more prudent choices. It could have cut the budget deficit while also acknowledging insolvency and requiring creditors to share some of the burdens. But a strong lobby of real estate developers, the investors who bought banks’ bonds and politicians with links to the failed developments (and their bankers) prefer that taxpayers, rather than creditors, pay.”
And this means…
“Under the current program, we estimate that each Irish family of four will be liable for 200,000 euros in public debt by 2015. There are only 73,000 children born into the country each year, and these children will be paying off debts for decades to come.”
In conclusion?
“Ireland, simply put, appears insolvent under plausible possibilities with current policies.”
Good morning.
“An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission for developer Liam Carroll’s North Quay Investments Limited to complete the building of the proposed Anglo Irish Bank headquarters in Dublin’s docklands.”
OK. Developer Liam ‘Zoe’ Carroll, who is €2.8 billion in debt, gets the gig to finish Anglo’s HQ.
Anglo’s latest six-month loss: €8.2 billion.
€2.8 billion, €8.2 billion.
It’s Golden Circle symmetry, baby.
Carroll Gets Permission To Complete Anglo HQ (RTE.ie)
(Photocall Ireland)
Don’t ask them. They run Nama.
Let’s ask the Financial Times:
“Nobody knows. That is all that can be said in reply to Ireland’s most pressing question – is the National Asset Management Agency working? Nama was established to absorb €81bn of bad property loans held by Irish banks, allowing the lenders to recapitalise. Yet the country’s banking crisis continues, two years after Lehman Brothers collapsed. The banks remain on life support through a blanket guarantee on deposits and most debt; Anglo Irish Bank continues to make ludicrous losses; and there is growing scepticism over official assurances that the cost of rescuing the system has been contained.”
Yeah. Yeah. We know that.
Nama is an odd creature: part debt collection agency, part property developer. As well as toxic loans, it may end up with a portfolio of property which was collateral for the banks’ lending binge. It was meant to fix the broken banks, convince taxpayers they might be repaid and reassure the markets the banks’ liabilities would be met in full. Facing in three directions, it has not appeared convincing in any: slow, bureaucratic, initially indecisive and almost excessively transparent (every toxic loan is assessed individually).”
Translation: Probably not.
(No link as FT operate a paywall. Harrumph).
“What do they think? That Sean FitzPatrick is in the cupboard over there and he’s still operating the place?” said Mr Aynsley.Launched in March, 2007, at a party attended by Louise and Jamie Redknapp and Alan Hughes, the Belmayne estate in North Dublin was promoted as the last word in hi-tech, horny living. Absurd billboards appeared showing how your life would change once you dropped the necessary folding stuff. It now lies half empty and the firm behind it has gone bust. But what of the poster children? How are they getting on now?
“How do I tell these chicks that this the only occupied house within half a mile?”
“We’ve been waiting on someone to fix our water supply since 9am.”
“Fire away there Mick, no neighbours to see you after all.”
Pam: “I’ve just remembered. I’m a metaphor for Ireland’s ills.
Bobby: “What does that make me?”
Pam: “Germany.”
Speaking for Broadsheet, we’ve always seen ourselves more like Sue “Drinking up a storm” Ellen.
Only when we’re texting. Jeez.
Hang on. Who is this dude?
Dev’s grandson.
Well, they say it skips a generation.
Ah. That’s ok th-
Hold up. Nooooooooooo.
(Photocall Ireland)
