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

[muppet]

The government won't do what should be done because the property prices will collapse. This will mean they will lose the election as all the young peoples houses are worth half of what they paid for them. Everthing in this mess comes back to what this government has done and it is doing everything it can to make people feel that things are still good. It is looking after its own reputation.

But the Indo will tell us to vote them back in because Inda hasn't any charisma, and the public will fall for it again.

[Declan]

Gene Kerrigan: Blatantly unjust politics takes fun out of dissent
At least rogues like Haughey gave hacks outlandish spin to deride, says Gene Kerrigan

   
By Gene Kerrigan

Sunday March 07 2010

There was a time when a gig as a dissenting newspaper columnist was relatively easy. Charlie Haughey, for instance, was a joy to write about. He lied and thieved with barely an effort to keep the smirk off his face. The obsequious party faithful bowed and grovelled, delighted that such a great leader had consented to pick their pockets. Back then, the gig for a dissenting newspaper columnist involved remembering what Charlie said a few months earlier, taking it out of the files and laying it down beside what he was saying now -- and bingo, watch the penny drop. Wake up, suckers, the guy's a chancer.

But no matter what the little crook did, there was always a solid core of Fianna Failers ready to kiss his hind quarters.

Later on, I enjoyed my work whenever a new packet of money turned up in one of Bertie Ahern's bank accounts. "I won it on a horse", Bertie would say. Or, eh, that was a "dig out". And the other money, the sterling deposits, well, "I didn't get that, I never got it -- oh, wait now, I think I must have changed punts into sterling when I wasn't looking and -- ah, Jayzus, why don't yez all bugger off and commit suicide?"

By God, those were the days. There was a vast centre of fawning deference to the Irish establishment -- all they had to do was put up a threadbare explanation of their questionable conduct and the crawlers bought it. This left a huge constituency of the bewildered faithful to which the perceptive newspaper columnist could attempt to explain what was going on.

Today, you don't have to be perceptive, you don't have to keep records of what the dodgy people said last month or last year. Today, the all-pervading cheesiness at all levels of the establishment is so blindingly obvious that -- well, they've taken the fun out of it.

Take the Greens. Imagine if a few years back someone revealed that a cabal of Fianna Failers was secretly rigging the composition of the Cabinet. Hey -- you be minister long enough to get a pension, then I'll be minister for a while. Imagine if the configuration of the Cabinet was decided by Fianna Fail chancers in deals so secret that even members of the Cabinet seemed unaware of them.

Imagine Haughey or Ahern was caught at that. The ropey alibis and the thick mist of spin would descend on everything, and dissenting newspaper columnists would spend weeks trying to blow the fog away. Today, there's no real effort to pretend that the secret rigging of the Cabinet is anything other than what it is -- unquestionably wrong and irretrievably debased. The very word Green has come to mean a particularly sneaky, self-serving form of behaviour. And the Greens seem cool with that.

Last week, a biggie from the HSE went on Morning Ireland to hammer rank and file campaigning against cuts -- the people who are trying to stop things getting even worse. Why was the HSE escalating the conflict? He said they "want to ensure that no patient or client coming into our services will be put at risk".

This was on a morning when the newspapers and airwaves were aflame with the story of Tracey Fay and the other two dozen or so children who have died in HSE care. Not to mention the countless immigrant children who simply disappear. Meanwhile, a coroner was considering the case of a 41-year-old man who turned blue and died after waiting seven hours in an A&E. Whole armies of people who have waited in A&E for multiples of seven hours read that and shivered. But, hey --not to worry -- the HSE is on the job. The health services might now be misshapen by the market obsessions of the right-wing ideologues in Government, but we can rest easy. Any lower-level public servant who works to rule is now in big trouble, because that potentially puts patients "at risk". And we listen to this and we don't even pretend anymore that it makes sense.

It used to be that a newspaper columnist had to argue that problems within the garda force couldn't merely be ascribed to the occasional bad apple -- that the political control and supervision of the force, the debasement of the very notion of why the force exists, was the problem. Today, this is so obvious that no one needs to be convinced. The Evening Herald got its hands on copies of the letters in which Trevor Sargent interfered unlawfully with the administration of justice. And quite properly published them. And the Opposition slyly -- and in my opinion incorrectly -- suggested that Fianna Fail must have leaked the letters in order to embarrass the Greens. Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern had a conniption. In an instant, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation -- I'm not kidding, the bloody National Bureau of Criminal Investigation -- is assigned to track down the leaker. Why?

When there was strong evidence some time back that Cabinet confidentially was betrayed, to the commercial benefit of identifiable business people, was the NBCI called in? Like hell it was. But, back then, only the integrity of the Cabinet was compromised by a leak. Now, the cosy relationship between the governing parties is threatened.

And today, the establishment is so gross and lacking in shame that it feels entitled to use a specialised Garda unit to exonerate the Minister for Justice from political allegations of leaking.

The builders have been swearing blind that their inside knowledge shows there are a mere 40,000 empty dwellings in the state. Now, an independent academic survey shows it's more than 340,000. One in six dwellings is empty. And it got this way because of the collaboration of the builders, their friends the bankers and their other friends the politicians. The politicians created the tax breaks, the bankers loaned the money, the builders threw up whole fields of unneeded houses and apartments, hotels and office blocks -- and they all got rich. Now, we pay billions to clean up the mess. In 1987-94, service cuts and tax evasion saw billions in wealth transferred from us to an elite. Lives were destroyed, people died unnecessarily and prematurely. Fortunes were made. Today, there's a transfer of billions from us and our children to the tiny elites of the bankers and their bondholders. They gave us cover stories that for a while seemed to their media fans to have some substance. All this would "clean up" the banks and "get credit flowing", to "mend the economy". No one now believes that. If the cover story is untrue, why is this being done? In whose interest? Some await revenge at a general election. But Fine Gael and Labour offer similar solutions, with a veneer of moral outrage. Even Sinn Fein, on Friday, agreed to "leave the door open" to doing a deal to keep Fianna Fail in power, or Fine Gael, if they have a better offer.

The injustice is blatant. Yet, we seem powerless to stop it. There is, perhaps, a level of fear. Either we swallow the injustice -- or we take on a very, very big fight. And the implications of that are daunting.

Charlie, old son, them was the day

You'd have to wonder what it actually takes for the people of this country to stand up and fight for what is right

[Pangurban]

You'd have to wonder what it actually takes for the people of this country to stand up and fight for what is right

This quote from the Article above, is a perfect example of the tendency of Newspaper columinists to run with the Hare and hunt with the Hounds, while trying to appear objective and above the fray. The Newspaper in which this article is printed has been to the fore in its editorials and opinion columns with denunciations of those who are trying too stand up and fight for what is right, namely Community groups,trade unions etc. Too these people it is all entertainment, it fills column inches, provokes some reaction and sells Newspaper, which earns them a salary and some degree of job security. Nothing wrong with that per se, but the feigned indignation, and the moralising, patronising cant and hypocrisy is hard to stomach

[Declan]

You'd have to wonder what it actually takes for the people of this country to stand up and fight for what is right

Pangur that was my quote rather than from the article - should have made that clearer.

[fearbrags]

""You'd have to wonder what it actually takes for the people of this country to stand up and fight for what is right""

That is exactly what I am wondering as well

[Hereiam]

A decent leader that people would listen to too.

[Declan]

Was going to stick this on the Things that make you go WTF thread

Pay hike for Nama staff

Friday, March 12, 2010 - 08:04 AM

The board members of the National Assets Management Agency (Nama) have received a pay hike, just three months into the job.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has confirmed the new fee structure, which is said to reflect their increased workload.

It is understood the board's chair will receive a 70% increase on his original pay packet, bringing his salary to €170,000.

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/ireland/pay-hike-for-nama-staff-449667.html#ixzz0hxCFKUsC

[Rois]

The NAMA board should plough the available money into hiring some lower level staff - there's a real bottleneck at the top for the loans transfer.

[muppet]

Was going to stick this on the Things that make you go WTF thread

Pay hike for Nama staff

Friday, March 12, 2010 - 08:04 AM

The board members of the National Assets Management Agency (Nama) have received a pay hike, just three months into the job.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has confirmed the new fee structure, which is said to reflect their increased workload.

It is understood the board's chair will receive a 70% increase on his original pay packet, bringing his salary to €170,000.

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/ireland/pay-hike-for-nama-staff-449667.html#ixzz0hxCFKUsC

As far as I can see this is the Board we are talking about, not the Executive management team. In that case they will probably meet once a month with the odd EGM on top of that. One or two might do some committee work.

If that is true the money would appear to be very generous especially given the Irish system of appointing a select few to lots of different boards.

[Hardy]

According to RTÉ news, the fraud squad have arrested a man in his early sixties in connection with their investigation of a particular bank's affairs.

We can guess it's Anglo and we can assume who it is.

Only took a year and a half.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

The government won't do what should be done because the property prices will collapse. This will mean they will lose the election as all the young peoples houses are worth half of what they paid for them. Everthing in this mess comes back to what this government has done and it is doing everything it can to make people feel that things are still good. It is looking after its own reputation.

Well they have the Fianna Fail public relations desk RTE and the Irish Press Irish Independent/Sindo to take care of that for them.

[orangeman]

Ex-Anglo Irish Bank chairman in fraud inquiry 

Anglo Irish Bank was nationalised after almost going bust
The former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank is being questioned by Irish police about alleged financial irregularities.

Sean Fitzpatrick stepped down in December 2008 after admitting he had concealed millions of euros in personal loans from the Dublin-based bank.

He hid the loans from shareholders by temporarily transferring them to another bank before each year-end to avoid revealing them in the accounts.

The bank became a symbol for the decline of the "Celtic Tiger" economy.

Last year, Anglo reported the biggest loss in Irish corporate history when it made a loss of 4.1bn euros (£3.7m) in the six months to March on the back of large impairments on its property loans to developers.

Aside from the concealment of directors' loans, other scandals to afflict the bank included a scheme to allegedly give artificial support to the bank's share price and the recording of a huge loan from another bank as a customer deposit.

Mr Fitzpatrick was arrested at his home in Greystones, County Wicklow, by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation on Thursday. His house was also searched.

Following the arrest, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said he had "always stated there is an extensive Garda investigation under way".

"I have been cautious not to prejudice that investigation and am eager to see justice take its course."

[Hardy]

They're really on the ball anyway, searching his house a year and a half on. I'm sure he has all the stuff indexed and filed for them. F****n Keystone Cops.

[Declan]

Agree Hardy. I'd heard that the fraud team consisted of 5 investigating gardai. Crack team no doubt but it just shows the commitment to it

[gerrykeegan]

An why did they have to arrive at 6.30 in the morning, to catch him on the hop? Was he furiously trying to get the shredder going? They could just as easily saved time and resouces and rang him to tell him to come down to the station.