The Big Bailout of the Eurozone (Another crisis coming? - Seriously)

[Declan]

brighten up our day yet again Dec !

never did trust politicians, teachers and accountants.
yet the f**king country is run (ruined) by all of the above.

This will make you feel better so!!

As we pay €713m we don't owe, our EU 'leaders' live in jet-set style
by Colette Browne

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

The state yesterday dutifully handed over €713 million to unsecured Anglo Irish bondholders and will again stick its hands in our pockets and fork out a further €1.25 billion in January.

The Financial Times dubbed yesterday's payment "a windfall profit for high risk investors" and said the bonds had been trading as low as 52c in the euro earlier this year.

So, it's safe to assume that someone, somewhere is today toasting the government and its dogged determination to beggar the nation by paying debts it doesn't owe.

While crippling asuterity measures are inflicted on long-suffering citizens, who are instructed not to complain and to instead lie back and think of the bondholders, politicians at home and abroad have not shown the same eagerness to subject themselves to cuts.

It would be easier to take the patronising lectures from windbag politicians, including our friends in Europe, if they themselves didn't flash our cash with such wild abandon.

For reasons that have yet to be explained, the EU now boasts three separate Presidents, two of whom appear to hate each other's guts. Despite the fact that Herman Van Rompuy's position possess as much power as anemic gnat, Jose Manuel Barosso's nose is out of joint because he believes that he's Europe's true leader on the world stage. Small men, big egos – the usual sad story.

This would all be terribly amusing if they weren't out spending taxpayers' money with the same cheeky insouciance as Elton John's florist in their efforts to ignore each other.

Last year it was revealed that the pair had travelled to a summit in Russia in separate VIP jets because they couldn't bear to be in the same confined airspace as each other.

Van Rompuy, and his entorage of less than 15 minions, took a 35-seater jet while Barrosso was forced to scramble a separate 15-seater Learjet at a cost of nearly €100,000 which departed Brussels within four hours of the larger aircraft. Van Rompuy, little known outside his native Belgium before completing the EU's presidential triumvirate, courted controversy soon after his appointment. On that occasion it was revealed that he had he used official cars and chauffeurs as a taxi service to take his extended family - wife, four children, two of their spouses and two grandchildren – on a 325-mile round trip to a Paris airport, where they departed for a private Caribbean holiday.

The sleek presidential motorcade ferried the Van Rompuy clan from Brussels to Paris and was waiting to collect them when they returned, presumably looking tanned and feeling relaxed.

Although it sounds like they all had a charming family trip, the reason that European taxpayers paid to shuttle them from one country to another, at an estimated cost of over €5,000, remains unclear.

Pouring salt into the wound, Van Rompuy lives in an exclusive part of Brussels that is conveniently located less than 10 miles from the Gare du Midi, which boasts frequent high-speed trains to Paris.

Regrettably, the Van Rompuys aren't the only ones globe-trotting in style at taxpayers' expense and a group comprising 13 MEPs and 12 parliamentary staff will today jet off to French Guiana, on the eastern coast of South America, for a three-day €120,000 "study trip".

According to their itinerary, the MEPs have been booked to appear on a local TV show where they will presumably bore viewers and kill ratings discussing the "social inclusion of the Amerindian communities" and the likelihood of "extending EU funds to the outermost regions" – while also conveniently enjoying champagne receptions, haute cusine and five-star beach-front hotels for the remainder of their junket.

While only 13 lucky MEPs will be able to soak up the sun in French Guina today, earlier this year 75 politicians enjoyed a trip to Uruguay at a cost of €1.4m – over €15,000 a day.

Ostensibly travelling for an annual Eurolat event, to discuss trade links between the continents, each MEP enjoyed a travel allowance of over €3,000 for business class flights and top hotels.

In fact, between 2004 and 2010, MEPs spent nearly €6 million on foreign travel during "fact finding" missions, which are invariably held in exclusive resorts in exotic locations.

For example, one such fact-finding trip was a visit to the sun-drenched Maldives where MEPs stayed in a five-star luxury private island resort and researched how to get an all-over tan without spilling their cocktails...I mean, that island's renowned electoral practices.

When not jet-setting at our expense, MEPs must be congratulated for finding ever more egregious excuses to award themselves generous pay increases. While the Irish were being publicly flagellated, and denied a cut to the bailout's extortionate interest rate earlier this year, MEPs quietly decided to bolster their own personal staffing expenses by nearly €18,000 a year – roughly equivalent to the annual salary that most expect the rest of us to subsist on.

That increase back in March means that every single one of the EU's 736 MEPs can now lavish over €255,000 on staff costs every year – an annual bill of nearly €200 million.

The increase was awarded after a clear-as-mud internal audit, conducted by the same MEPs who were seeking the increase, found it was warranted because the Lisbon Treaty, which they agitated to have implemented, allegedly upped their workloads.

The fact that many MEPs still have close family members on their payroll is, I'm sure, entirely unrelated to the fact that most were so eager to have the staff allowance increased.

As well as the €255,000 that can be spent on staff, MEPs also enjoy an allowance of over €105,000 for "daily subsistence" and "general expenditure" expenses – which they can demand without having to provide any pesky receipts or proof of expenditure.

Hard to imagine then that MEPs were found to have committed "massive" fraud when the expenses and allowances claimed by them were audited between 2002 and 2006.

The findings of the Galvin Report were so explosive that MEPs, including presidential reject Gay Mitchell, voted not to publish it when it was completed in 2008.

In fact, the eventual publication of the report earlier this year was solely due to the tenacity of Irish barrister Ciarán Toland, who waged an expensive three-year battle with the European Parliament over its cover up.

Having sought the report back in 2008, Mr Toland was told "the use members make of the allowances available to them is a sensitive matter" and that "elements of the report could be used to derail the debate on the reform of the (allowances) system and compromise rapid reform".

To paraphrase, we can't give you this report because it reveals that many of us are greedy self-serving fraudsters and we'll be lynched if the details get out. Rather predictably, some of the reports more inflammatory findings included the revelation that that MEPs hired non-existent "ghost" workers, employed family members on inflated salaries and, generally, went through the EU's €120 million expenses pot like cocaine at a Dublin 4 house party.

These duplicitous politicians, who preach austerity but practice extravagance, are the same ones who argue that Irish citizens alone must bear the burden of repaying the gargantuan debts run up by private financial institutions. More galling still is the fact that our own ministers seem to think that this idiocy makes perfect sense - only eight months in government and they already have Stockholm Syndrome.

With the announcement of a referendum on the bailout in Greece, which threatens to imminently sink the eurozone, the EU's difficulty could be Ireland's opportunity and, if the government has any cop on, it will seek rewards other than public pats on the head for meekly agreeing to every ruinous demand that's made of it.

[seafoid]

The EFSF, the fund that is charged with raising money in the market for the next slice of Ireland's bailout had to cancel fundraising yesterday because nobody wants to fund . They have until mid November to get the money.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0890d1a2-0556-11e1-a3d1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1cZUWlMnk

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

brighten up our day yet again Dec !

never did trust politicians, teachers and accountants.
yet the f**king country is run (ruined) by all of the above.

This will make you feel better so!!

As we pay €713m we don't owe, our EU 'leaders' live in jet-set style
by Colette Browne

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

The state yesterday dutifully handed over €713 million to unsecured Anglo Irish bondholders and will again stick its hands in our pockets and fork out a further €1.25 billion in January.

The Financial Times dubbed yesterday's payment "a windfall profit for high risk investors" and said the bonds had been trading as low as 52c in the euro earlier this year.

So, it's safe to assume that someone, somewhere is today toasting the government and its dogged determination to beggar the nation by paying debts it doesn't owe.

While crippling asuterity measures are inflicted on long-suffering citizens, who are instructed not to complain and to instead lie back and think of the bondholders, politicians at home and abroad have not shown the same eagerness to subject themselves to cuts.

It would be easier to take the patronising lectures from windbag politicians, including our friends in Europe, if they themselves didn't flash our cash with such wild abandon.

For reasons that have yet to be explained, the EU now boasts three separate Presidents, two of whom appear to hate each other's guts. Despite the fact that Herman Van Rompuy's position possess as much power as anemic gnat, Jose Manuel Barosso's nose is out of joint because he believes that he's Europe's true leader on the world stage. Small men, big egos – the usual sad story.

This would all be terribly amusing if they weren't out spending taxpayers' money with the same cheeky insouciance as Elton John's florist in their efforts to ignore each other.

Last year it was revealed that the pair had travelled to a summit in Russia in separate VIP jets because they couldn't bear to be in the same confined airspace as each other.

Van Rompuy, and his entorage of less than 15 minions, took a 35-seater jet while Barrosso was forced to scramble a separate 15-seater Learjet at a cost of nearly €100,000 which departed Brussels within four hours of the larger aircraft. Van Rompuy, little known outside his native Belgium before completing the EU's presidential triumvirate, courted controversy soon after his appointment. On that occasion it was revealed that he had he used official cars and chauffeurs as a taxi service to take his extended family - wife, four children, two of their spouses and two grandchildren – on a 325-mile round trip to a Paris airport, where they departed for a private Caribbean holiday.

The sleek presidential motorcade ferried the Van Rompuy clan from Brussels to Paris and was waiting to collect them when they returned, presumably looking tanned and feeling relaxed.

Although it sounds like they all had a charming family trip, the reason that European taxpayers paid to shuttle them from one country to another, at an estimated cost of over €5,000, remains unclear.

Pouring salt into the wound, Van Rompuy lives in an exclusive part of Brussels that is conveniently located less than 10 miles from the Gare du Midi, which boasts frequent high-speed trains to Paris.

Regrettably, the Van Rompuys aren't the only ones globe-trotting in style at taxpayers' expense and a group comprising 13 MEPs and 12 parliamentary staff will today jet off to French Guiana, on the eastern coast of South America, for a three-day €120,000 "study trip".

According to their itinerary, the MEPs have been booked to appear on a local TV show where they will presumably bore viewers and kill ratings discussing the "social inclusion of the Amerindian communities" and the likelihood of "extending EU funds to the outermost regions" – while also conveniently enjoying champagne receptions, haute cusine and five-star beach-front hotels for the remainder of their junket.

While only 13 lucky MEPs will be able to soak up the sun in French Guina today, earlier this year 75 politicians enjoyed a trip to Uruguay at a cost of €1.4m – over €15,000 a day.

Ostensibly travelling for an annual Eurolat event, to discuss trade links between the continents, each MEP enjoyed a travel allowance of over €3,000 for business class flights and top hotels.

In fact, between 2004 and 2010, MEPs spent nearly €6 million on foreign travel during "fact finding" missions, which are invariably held in exclusive resorts in exotic locations.

For example, one such fact-finding trip was a visit to the sun-drenched Maldives where MEPs stayed in a five-star luxury private island resort and researched how to get an all-over tan without spilling their cocktails...I mean, that island's renowned electoral practices.

When not jet-setting at our expense, MEPs must be congratulated for finding ever more egregious excuses to award themselves generous pay increases. While the Irish were being publicly flagellated, and denied a cut to the bailout's extortionate interest rate earlier this year, MEPs quietly decided to bolster their own personal staffing expenses by nearly €18,000 a year – roughly equivalent to the annual salary that most expect the rest of us to subsist on.

That increase back in March means that every single one of the EU's 736 MEPs can now lavish over €255,000 on staff costs every year – an annual bill of nearly €200 million.

The increase was awarded after a clear-as-mud internal audit, conducted by the same MEPs who were seeking the increase, found it was warranted because the Lisbon Treaty, which they agitated to have implemented, allegedly upped their workloads.

The fact that many MEPs still have close family members on their payroll is, I'm sure, entirely unrelated to the fact that most were so eager to have the staff allowance increased.

As well as the €255,000 that can be spent on staff, MEPs also enjoy an allowance of over €105,000 for "daily subsistence" and "general expenditure" expenses – which they can demand without having to provide any pesky receipts or proof of expenditure.

Hard to imagine then that MEPs were found to have committed "massive" fraud when the expenses and allowances claimed by them were audited between 2002 and 2006.

The findings of the Galvin Report were so explosive that MEPs, including presidential reject Gay Mitchell, voted not to publish it when it was completed in 2008.

In fact, the eventual publication of the report earlier this year was solely due to the tenacity of Irish barrister Ciarán Toland, who waged an expensive three-year battle with the European Parliament over its cover up.

Having sought the report back in 2008, Mr Toland was told "the use members make of the allowances available to them is a sensitive matter" and that "elements of the report could be used to derail the debate on the reform of the (allowances) system and compromise rapid reform".

To paraphrase, we can't give you this report because it reveals that many of us are greedy self-serving fraudsters and we'll be lynched if the details get out. Rather predictably, some of the reports more inflammatory findings included the revelation that that MEPs hired non-existent "ghost" workers, employed family members on inflated salaries and, generally, went through the EU's €120 million expenses pot like cocaine at a Dublin 4 house party.

These duplicitous politicians, who preach austerity but practice extravagance, are the same ones who argue that Irish citizens alone must bear the burden of repaying the gargantuan debts run up by private financial institutions. More galling still is the fact that our own ministers seem to think that this idiocy makes perfect sense - only eight months in government and they already have Stockholm Syndrome.

With the announcement of a referendum on the bailout in Greece, which threatens to imminently sink the eurozone, the EU's difficulty could be Ireland's opportunity and, if the government has any cop on, it will seek rewards other than public pats on the head for meekly agreeing to every ruinous demand that's made of it.

F.uck that makes my blood boil! 

Does our Government (recent past or present) have any balls to stand up for the rights of the Irish nation - No!
Are our Government (recent past or present) going to "give" away our only major natural resources (which if used properly could get us out of this shithole we're in) - Yes
Are we up shitcreek without a paddle - most definately YES.
With politicians like we have we don't need any enemies.

[Denn Forever]

Threat to Greece that if they leave the Euro, they'll have to leave the EU.  Seemingly it is in the treaty or rules.  Never knew that.

[Declan]

Threat to Greece that if they leave the Euro, they'll have to leave the EU.  Seemingly it is in the treaty or rules.  Never knew that

Always reasd the small print!!

Here's a good article on the dynamics of the markets -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/30/daniel-kahneman-cognitive-illusion-extract

[muppet]

Italian govt on brink of collapse

[muppet]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1107/italy-business.html

Italian borrowing costs hit record high

[seafoid]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1107/italy-business.html

Italian borrowing costs hit record high

a bit misleading. Euro record high. Italy was paying way more than 10% not so long ago. T   

[Declan]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8873041/Europes-rescue-fiasco-leaves-Italy-defenceless.html

The spreads on EFSF 5-year bonds have already tripled to 151 above German debt, leaving Japan and other early buyers nursing a big loss. The fund suffered a failed auction last week, cutting the issue from €5bn to €3bn on lack of demand.

Gary Jenkins from Evolution Securities said the "frightening" development is that the EFSF is itself being shut out of the capital markets. "If it continues to perform like that then the bailout fund might need a bail out," he said.
Europe's attempt to widen the creditor net by drawing in the world's reserve states evoked near universal scorn in Cannes and a damning put-down by Brazil's Dilma Rousseff. "I have not the slightest intention of contributing directly to the EFSF; if they are not willing to do it, why should I?"

[muppet]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1107/italy-business.html

Italian borrowing costs hit record high

a bit misleading. Euro record high. Italy was paying way more than 10% not so long ago. T

I heard an interesting twist on that.

Apparently historically lots of monied Italians have been averse to handing it over to the State as tax. As you can imagine some of this money was aggressively defended. The Italian solution to this Italian problem was to offer high interest rates on their own Government bonds. Many Italians took up this offer which was entirely legitimate and lead to most of the Italian's Government debt being held internally in Italy. The Government then regularly devalued the currency which led to the ridiculous amounts of Lira required to buy anything. The constant devaluing effectively forced any Italians with cash to lend to the Government to get the high interest rate to try to stop their cash from devaluing.

The Government borrowed from citizens at a high rate but devalued regularly to reduce the debt. Thus they  got their tax.

[seafoid]

Very sad to see this
Of course if his name had been Anglo Irish he would still be going strong.

irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Monday, November 7, 2011, 17:30
Radio presenter declared bankrupt


Today FM presenter Tony Fenton: formally declared bankrupt
MARY CAROLAN

Today FM presenter Tony Fenton has been declared bankrupt at the High Court over his failure to pay tax debts amounting to almost €880,000.

The radio disc jockey, whose real name is Anthony Fagan, did not contest a petition for bankruptcy brought by the Revenue Commissioners arising from three court judgements against him, totalling €879,695.87.

The Revenue has also registered a judgment mortgage against Mr Fagan's south Dublin home which is also subject of a bank mortgage.

Mr Fagan, Merrion Woods, Stillorgan Road, Blackrock in Dublin, was working at the Today FM offices at Digges Lane, Dublin 2, when he was served with the petition by the Revenue Commissioners on October 28th last, it was stated in legal documents.

Mr Fagan was not in court today when the matter came before Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne in the High Court bankruptcy list.

The judge made an order formally adjudicating Mr Fagan bankrupt. Mr Fagan was represented in court by his solicitor, St John Dundon, of Dundon Callanan Solicitors, and later attended to sign papers at the bankruptcy offices in Smithfield.

The Revenue was represented by barrister Gary Compton, who said the petition had been brought following Mr Fagan's "failure to satisfy a bankruptcy summons".

Last year, three judgements were made against the presenter in the High Court, totalling €770,044.09. The interest accrued on these judgments to date has increased that figure to €879,695.87.

[Orangemac]

Off topic but hopefully things work out for Tony. He has had a hard year to say the least fighting cancer twice and his mother dying. Always seemed like a decent bloke since "The Hotline" days.

On the Eurozone the can is moving about so much it is getting harder to kick down the road. No amount of rainy day money in a fund is going to be enough.

The ECB needs to get the printing machines going, there may be inflation (which the Germans will love) coming down the line if this happens but to save the euro this may be the only option remaining.

[Declan]

Today FM presenter Tony Fenton has been declared bankrupt at the High Court over his failure to pay tax debts amounting to almost €880,000

Jesus that's some amount of money to run up as a tax debt!

Thought provoking piece from O'Toole this morning:
Triumph of the spivs as democracy is sidelined
FINTAN O'TOOLE

EVER WISHED, in a dull moment, that you could have lived through some of the big moments of European history? Well, be careful what you wish for. We're living through one of them now and it's not much fun.

Historical moments aren't sudden changes. They're the points at which something that has been long in the making finally emerges, when something murky crystallises into clarity. That happened last week, and Ireland was a significant part of it.

What happened was that two of the big shaping forces of western Europe, forces that have been working broadly in tandem for 300 years, clearly fell apart. One force is capitalism; the other democracy. From the Enlightenment onwards, it has been an accepted truth that democracy and capitalism were at the very least compatible with each other. The things that were needed in order for capitalism to develop – the breaking of aristocratic power, the free movement of labour, an open market in ideas, functioning parliaments, independent legal systems, states that could command popular consent and thus underpin stability, taxation to fund mass education and infrastructure – were also conditions for political democracy. They may not have been sufficient conditions, but they were necessary ones.

This is not to say that there have not been huge tensions in the relationship between capitalism and democracy, or that there have not been periods when the holders of capital preferred authoritarian or fascist regimes. Nor is it to deny that the large-scale inequalities inherent in most forms of capitalism have tended to limit the practice of democracy, through private control of media, the funding of political parties and the ability of the very rich to threaten and intimidate elected governments. The point is simply that the two forces were generally compatible. The trump card of capitalism against communism was clear and simple: we hold free elections and you don't.

What became so dramatically clear last week was that this compatibility has ended. The leading form of capitalism – the finance capitalism that has expanded so monstrously over the last 30 years – is no longer compatible with democracy in Europe.

And by democracy in this context I mean just the limited, basic form: universal suffrage and sovereign governments. This is a pretty big deal.

Consider the three things that happened in Greece and Ireland last week. Firstly, it was made explicit that the most reckless, irresponsible and ultimately impermissible thing a government could do was to seek the consent of its own people to decisions that would shape their lives. And, indeed, even if it had gone ahead, the Greek referendum would have been largely meaningless. As one Greek MP put it, the question would have been: do you want to take your own life or to be killed? Secondly, there was open and shameless intervention by European leaders (Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy) in the internal affairs of another state. Sarkozy hailed the "courageous and responsible" stance of the main Greek opposition party – in effect a call for the replacement of the elected Greek government.

The third part of this moment of clarity was what happened in Ireland: the payment of a billion dollars to unsecured Anglo Irish Bank bondholders. Apart from its obvious obscenity, the most striking aspect of this was that, for the first time, we had a government performing an action it openly declared to be wrong. Michael Noonan wasn't handing over these vast sums of cash from a bankrupt nation to vulture capitalist gamblers because he thought it was a good idea. He was doing it because there was a gun to his head. The threat came from the European Central Bank and it was as crude as it was brutal: give the spivs your taxpayers' money or we'll bring down your banking system.

Again, as in Greece, even the basic forms of democracy were incompatible with this process. There could not be a Greek referendum because there is no acceptable question that can be answered by a democratic vote. And there could not be a debate in the Irish parliament about the extortion of a billion dollars because there is nothing to be debated. Referendums and parliamentary votes are rituals of public consent. But the question of consent is now not just irrelevant. It is reckless, outrageous, downright scandalous.

And this isn't just a simple matter of the Merkozy monster lording it over us little PIGS. For at this historic moment, even the German chancellor is little more than a cipher. She's caught in the democratic crisis too. Remember this time last year when Angela Merkel started to make noises about bondholders sharing the pain of rescuing the banking system? She had to back down very quickly and make it clear that she didn't mean present bondholders – heaven forbid. Even the German chancellor isn't allowed to say certain things.

Europe, and the rest of the western world, is thus at a parting of the ways. We can have the form of rapacious finance capitalism that has become the dominant force in our economies and societies.

Or we can have democracy. But we can't have both.

[Declan]

And here's another development that lends credence to O'Toole's piece
http://www.independent.ie/business/european/shadowy-frankfurt-group-said-to-be-pivotal-in-europe-2927901.html

[seafoid]

Apparently Tony Fenton got burnt in property investment. Like so many others.