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

[bcarrier]

Main St you make your argument well and might be right. I cant figure out if the whole thing is being run by evil geniuses or is just running amok under incompetent idiots.

On the phone masts thing ..anyone know if local authorities are collecting rates on these. They are effectively commercial premises ? The rateable value would be rent payable on them ?

[Rossfan]

FG came out with a re hashed version of FF's ( IMF's??) Budget plan yesterday.
That'll change things alright 

I take it you want FF to remain in power then?

No I effin well do not 
But I want to see change and I don't see any with FG (now being called FFLite) after that unimainitive IBEC/FF document they produced yesterday.
Then again I spose they won't be getting into power on their own so both their and Gilmore's document are only works of fantasy anyway as they'll have to put together something when they go into Govt together.

[bcarrier]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/03/angela-merkel-germany-abandon-euro

[muppet]

http://labour.ie/press/listing/12914741491263701.html

The Labour Party Spokesperson on Justice, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, has said that comments made by the Leader of the Green Party, John Gormley, in an interview on RTE with Marian Finnucane today suggested that the public had not been told the full truth about the circumstances surrounding the introduction of the blanket bank guarantee in September 2008.

In the version we have been given by the government to date the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance were approached on the evening of Monday, September 29th by the Chairmen and Chief Executives of the two main banks with dire warnings of what would happen when the banks opened in the morning. According to this version the two Brians had little time to consider the matter, that they were placed under great pressure, decided late that night to introduce the guarantee and sought the approval of other Ministers through an 'incorporeal' meeting of the Cabinet.

"However, according the version of events given by Mr. Gormley in his interview this morning, there had been a meeting of the cabinet the previous day (Sunday) at which it was agreed to introduce the guarantee, with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance being given the go-ahead to tie up some of the details.

"This is the first time I have heard any reference to a Sunday cabinet meeting or that the government had given its approval for a guarantee on that date. If Mr. Gormley's account is accurate then the public and the Dail have been seriously misled. If the account is accurate it also means that far from being pushed into making the guarantee, the government made a calm and calculated decision to tie the country's interests to that of the banks

"There is a now a fair deal of consensus that the introduction of the guarantee was a disaster that set in motion a chain of events that has led to the EU and the IMF dictating our economic destiny for years to come.

"The public is entitled to know the full truth on what went on.".

[seafoid]

Main St is right. The taxpayer is being broken to pay off the bondholders. The media are a disgrace. 
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1204/breaking7.html
The deficit, projected to amount to €50.3 billion this year, is expected to fall to €20 billion – or 12.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011.


Sure it is. With 35 bn fliushed down the banking toilet in 2011, 20bn of that nurses and others' pensions, the deficit will be far higher than 12.2%.


Ireland is in a debt deflation cycle. In 2 years' time after another 2 years of austerity the budget deficit won't have  improved.

[Declan]

Isn't it amazing how Gormley's statement on Saturday has disappered into the ether!!

[sammymaguire]

Nice that the Germans are pushing the issue so that this whole mess can make them a richer and stronger nation and the two Brian's are doing a great job standing up to them and protecting their own people

[Tyrones own]

Interesting read from a newsletter I subscribe to;

Ten Little Indians

There is the childhood story and song about the ten little Indians. And of course the Agatha Christie tale of the same name, with 10 people invited to an isolated place, only to find that an unseen person is killing them one by one. And that seems to be what the markets want to do with European sovereign debt. First it was Greece, then it was Ireland. Very soon it will be Portugal, then Spain, and even Italy? Belgium perhaps? How many more Indians till it hits the core of Europe?

My friend Dennis Gartman wrote a very humorous note yesterday about the following conversation between two Irishmen, Liam and Paddy, sitting in their local pub. The current Irish government has agreed to borrow something like $88 billion euros to shore up their banking crisis. That is about $27,000 for every man, woman, and baby in Ireland, a rather small country with a little over 4 million people.

"Aye, Paddy, now that it's all done, lad, we Irishmen owe the IMF; we owe the countries of the European Union; we owe those damned Englishmen; we owe the Danes; we owe the Swedes for God's sake! Oh, and we owe the banks, and we owe ourselves. Aye, lad; we owe the whole bloody world it seems."

That they do. And a lot of that Irish debt is owed to German, French, and UK banks. A lot more debt owed to banks than the Greeks owe, which had everyone worried not so long ago. See the graph below. (For those who are seeing this in black and white, the top section is Spain, then Portugal, Ireland, and Greece. Irish and Spanish debt dwarfs Greek debt.



And that chart is what is really going on in Europe. It is not about Germany and France wanting to help out Ireland and Greece (and eventually Portugal and Spain). They are not that benevolent. It is that they are worried about their banks going belly up.

Look at how upset the UK got when Iceland decided not to back their banks. Never mind that the bank debt was 12 times Iceland's national GDP. Never mind that there was no way in hell that the 300,000 people of Iceland could ever pay that much money back in multiples lifetimes. The Icelanders did the sensible thing: they just said no.

Yet Ireland has decided to try and save its banks by taking on massive public debt. The current government is willing to go down to a very resounding defeat in the near future because it thinks this is so important. And it is not clear that, with a slim majority of one vote, it will be able to hold its coalition together to do so. This is what the Bank Credit Analyst sent out this morning:

"The different adjustment paths of Ireland and Iceland are classic examples of devaluation versus deflation.

"Iceland and Ireland experienced similar economic illnesses prior to their respective crises: Both economies had too much private-sector debt and the banking system was massively overleveraged. Iceland's total external debt reached close to 1000% of its GDP in 2008. By the end of the year, Iceland's entire banking system was crushed and the stock market dropped by more than 95% from its 2007 highs. Since then, Iceland has followed the classic adjustment path of a debt crisis-stricken economy: The krona was devalued by more than 60% against the euro and the government was forced to implement draconian austerity programs.

"In Ireland, the boom in real estate prices triggered a massive borrowing binge, driving total private non-financial sector debt to almost 200% of GDP, among the highest in the euro area economy. In stark contrast to the Icelandic situation, however, the Irish economy has become stuck in a debt-deflation spiral. The government has lost all other options but to accept the €85 billion bailout package from the EU and the IMF. The big problem for Ireland is that fiscal austerity without a large currency devaluation is like committing economic suicide - without a cheapened currency to re-create nominal growth, fiscal austerity can only serve to crush aggregate demand and precipitate an economic downward spiral. The sad reality is that unlike Iceland, Ireland does not have the option of devaluing its own currency, implying that further harsh economic adjustment is likely."

This is what it looks like in the charts. Notice that Iceland is seeing its nominal GDP rise while Ireland is still in freefall, even after doing the "right thing" by taking on their bank debt.


Whither Portugal?

Portugal is one of those countries that is on my short-list of places I want to get to. Maybe I have romanticized it in my mind, but I have a wonderful picture of vineyards and mountains and ocean and sleepy little villages. But the country also has a rather staggering amount of debt.

As my friend and co-author of my new book, Jonathan Tepper, wrote last week in Variant Perception, Portugal is seeing all sorts of its economic dynamics go into reverse, except:

"The only thing that is not likely to move in reverse is debt levels. There are two main reasons for this. First, the measures the government are adopting to reduce the fiscal deficit will likely result in a deflationary dynamic, boosting the debt-to-GDP ratio.



"Second is Portugal's strong reliance on international investors to fund its debt. 80% of Portugal's public debt is held by foreigners (Portugal is very similar to Ireland in this respect), and its total external debt position amounts to 90% of its GDP. The deflationary correction elicited by the austerity measures will in itself be a reason for outside investors to stay away from Portuguese debt.

"This will continue to be a source of vulnerability because it leaves the country exposed to the continuing risk of having financial markets shutter to its debt. Portugal's government debt, at 82% of GDP, currently sits at less than that of Greece (126%) and Ireland (almost 100%). Yet adding in corporate and private debt, Portugal's debt-to-GDP ratio rises to over 250%. Foreign investors are unlikely to tolerate such situations for much longer. It thus likely Portugal will have to apply for an EU/IMF bailout in a matter of weeks rather than months."

Portugal needs to raise €51 billion to cover its fiscal deficits (€24 billion) and roll over its debt that is coming due (€27 billion). It is highly unlikely that foreign markets will be so kind as to lend the money, and the Portuguese economy is too small to finance that internally. It is a matter of sooner rather than later before Portugal is forced to accept the kindness of strangers.

But then that brings up the problem of Spain. Earlier this year I documented the difficult and mounting problems that are Spain. 20% unemployment. Large fiscal deficits. An external debt situation that is worse than Portugal's.

Yet Spain must figure out how to get €635 billion over the next few years to finance its deficits and bond repayments, which it hopes to roll over into brand new bonds. David Rosenberg wrote a few days ago:

"What is remarkable is that since the Greek bailout was unveiled back in May, instead of alleviating fiscal concerns in the Eurozone periphery, contagion risks have actually intensified. Even with German 10-year bond yields declining 25bps, they have risen nearly 70bps in Italy, 150bps in Spain, 225bps in Portugal, 420bps in Greece and 460bps in Ireland. Once the stabilization fund ends in 2013, there is no way these countries can fund themselves at current debt-service cost levels.

"Ireland may have secured funding, but at a 5.8% interest with nominal GDP declining, the situation is untenable in terms of sustaining any balance sheet improvement. Debt restructuring is inevitable. Looking at current CDS spreads, we are up to around 80% on default risks in Greece, 60% in Ireland, over 50% in Portugal, nearly 40% in Spain (this is big), nearly 30% in Italy and 20% in Belgium. No wonder the VIX is breaking out.

"The risk is one of financial contagion to be sure, but there is the added macro risk as U.S. exports to the EU account for over 20% of the total volume of shipments sent abroad — about double the relative importance of the B.R.I.C.s in relation to U.S. producers. Plus, there is the added deflationary thrust from the strengthening U.S. dollar, which will come home to roost in that large share of corporate earnings derived from foreign sources."



The US stock market gave a resounding sigh of relief this week when the Irish bailout was announced. This surely solved the problem, right? Right: Let's solve the debt problem by making them take on more debt. Oh, that the world could be that easy.

"How did you go bankrupt?
Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly."

- Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Why Ireland is Like Texas

Let me quickly claim a point of personal privilege here and go into a little personal history that will hopefully offer some insight into the problems facing Europe.

My grandfather was born in West Texas in 1859 (not a typo). His uncle (a Kelly and Irish) was a charter member of the Texas Rangers, which was formed around 1836. When the mayor of Waco telegraphed the Rangers in the 1870s that there was a riot in town and to please send the Rangers, he got a telegram back saying they would be there on the noon train. The mayor met the train and was dismayed to see that only one Ranger got off. When asked why he didn't have more men with him, the Ranger supposedly replied, "There's only one riot, isn't there?" That became the motto of the Rangers: "One riot, one Ranger." These were the toughest SOBs in a tough state. And the uncle was Irish to boot.

Texas started out as a republic and was independent for nine years. The treaty that made us a state allows us to either split into five states (wouldn't that change the balance in the Senate?) or to leave the union, at our choice.

I was once in a hotel bar (a shock, I know) somewhere in Africa and was asked where I was from. "Texas," I replied. "Interesting," came back the response; "Whenever I meet someone from America they always say they are from the US or America. Except when they are from Texas. Then they are always from Texas." Yep. Texas is a state of mind, and those who come here eventually adopt the state as their own. Just seems to happen.

Now, a thought game. What would happen if California and Illinois and New York came to Texas and said, "We think your taxes should double so that we can finance our debt, and please buy even more of our debt next year to pay for our unfunded pensions. Oh, and while you are doing that the Fed is going to print massive amounts of dollars (far, far more than they are now) and destroy the value of the dollar, so your Texas pensions will be worthless.

My guess is that my fellow Texans would look around and decide which Ranger to set on these guys, and make it clear that this was not the ride we had signed on for, and dust off that old treaty and work out an exit strategy.

Understand, in the runup to the recent election our sitting governor talked about secession. I was been in meetings with Very Serious Texas Politicians where secession was earnestly discussed 15 years ago - maybe over some whiskey, but with the conclusion that Texas might be better off without the crushing debt that was coming down the pike.

Do I think that could happen? No. The Fed will never choose hyperinflation, and I do not think you can find 60 Senators to decide that bailing out the states that let their own spending and taxes get out of control would be acceptable with their voters. Further, even though I am a very proud Texan, after 9/11 it was not the Texas flag that brought a tear to my eye, it was the Stars and Stripes. It would have to take a series of massively stupid decisions to bring Texas to the place where it would even remotely consider leaving the union.

Now consider, if I have some pride in being Texan, with less than 200 years of history, proud as it is, what is it like to be Greek or Irish or French or German or any of the European mix? What deep cultural roots must they have? Nearly every country at one point was on top of the heap, and all have rich heritages. There is history around every corner in Europe. Except a history of unity.

If you ask a European in that African bar where he is from, does he say Europe? No, he is from a country. (Unless he is Basque. Or Catalonian. Or Welsh.) One is not from Great Britain but from one of the divers components of the UK. And a large number of Scots want out. Could Belgium split apart? Possibly.

But essentially, what the eurozone is asking Germany (and the Dutch and the rest of "core" Europe) to do is bail out Greece and perhaps much of the rest of the periphery, and to assume massive deficits and rising taxes. Because for there to be enough money for the deficit nations to borrow cheaply, there must be an AAA rating and a 30% cash-to-loan deposit, as I understand it. Spain or Ireland may try and borrow their share of the bailout fund (such irony), but they do not get that AAA rating. For all intents and purposes, it is on the back of Germany and, to some extent, France.

Will German taxpayers go along with that? Will France?

Will the Germans still finance the Greeks in 2013 when they have not whittled down their deficit and the Greeks still want to retire at 50 on full pensions? Will the Irish decide that it is in their best interests to take on massive debt so that French and German and UK banks are paid back? Can the solution to a debt problem be more debt?

Will Texas singlehandedly bail out California so their prison guards can continue to make $100,000 a year? Tough questions.

Next Monday's Outside the Box will be from Dylan Grice, who choreographs a three-part dance in which those in authority first deny there is a problem, then say it is a minor problem and then, when it becomes a large problem, deny it was ever their fault. He lays bare a rich vein of recent history. Those who are denying that the euro is at risk are still in the first steps of that dance.

I have long been a euro skeptic. But that does not mean I am not in favor of the euro. The world is better off with the euro, I think. But for it to survive there must be a huge (as in trillions) stability fund created, and/or the ECB will have to print euros on a level that would make the Fed blush, simply to get the various national debt levels down to where the peripheral countries can actually pay them down.

Can that happen? Maybe. The euro never was an economic currency. It is a political currency, and for it to remain a currency or at some point in the future become an economic currency, it will take massive political resolve on the part of the members of the EU.

I wrote last year that there are only a few paths in front of us. The peripheral European countries can simply default - Greece did so just 20 years ago. Rates got up to 20% for them. Banks would take losses, but the ECB can be the backstop. And after a while people would forget and lend the Greeks money again.

Or some of the peripheral countries can leave and go back to their own currencies, taking the path to devaluation, like Iceland did. Or Germany can decide to go its own way after what will be a very volatile and controversial election in the future.

Or the ECB can print euros and buy out the debt on European banks' balance sheets. Or create a massively large stability fund and combine that with some haircuts for euro bond holders.

There are no good solutions, just very difficult ones. And not one that I see that is euro-bullish in the medium term.

Ten Little Indians. How many will remain in a few years? I wish them well. I really do.

[muppet]

Very good article.

[muppet]

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/there-is-no-safety-in-these-numbers-2448737.html

There is no safety in these numbers
Default is inevitable and the 'rescue plan' has only succeeded in delaying it, writes Constantin Gurdgiev

Sunday December 05 2010
Last week's deal between the Irish Government and the ECB/EU/IMF troika -- the details of which continue to trickle down from the stratospheric heights of secretive bureaucracies to the lowly taxpayers -- has been anything but a rescue for our battered economy.

Far from providing a resolution to Ireland's financial and fiscal crises, it made the restructuring of our banks' debt inevitable, no matter what the conditions underlying the deal says.

Instead of resolving the core problem of catastrophic losses within our banking sector and the related problem of the fiscal insolvency of our Exchequer, the ECB/EU/IMF loan created an internationally binding agreement that officially transferred the debts of our private banks onto the shoulders of Irish taxpayers. By doing so, the EU, with the complicity of the Irish Government, has delivered a full-blown contagion across the entire Irish economy.

The levels of our banking sector indebtedness are gargantuan. Carrying the Government and household debts amounting to some 225 per cent of the annual national economic output on the shoulders of ordinary income earners is a problematic proposition for a healthy economy. Doubling it to also cover the debt obligations of our banks is simply equivalent to economic suicide. Worse than that -- it is an act of subjugation of the ordinary taxpayers by their own Government.

Recognising that in addition to the catastrophically increased indebtedness of the real economy achieved by the ECB/EU/IMF deal, we have also experienced an unprecedented collapse of economic activity, which implies that the end game has not been changed by the latest loan agreement.

Default through the restructuring of Ireland's overall debts is inevitable.

The loan has simply delayed it, buying Europe some time before it has to face the ultimate crisis. The problem is, delaying things serves only to exacerbate the future fallout.

Insolvency is a condition that is determined by three factors -- the overall levels of debt, the cost of servicing this debt and the economy's capacity to repay interest and principal on the debt.

Before last week's loan was forced onto the Irish Government, our real economy -- households, non-banking financial intermediaries and non-financial corporations operating here -- were carrying the debts of €340bn. Add to this the Exchequer's outstanding debt and the total level of Irish economy's indebtedness and ex-banks, and the figure stood at €430bn. This was secured against the expected national income of about €130bn in 2010. In other words, the Irish economy has leveraged some 3.3 times its income.

Courtesy of the ECB/EU/IMF loan, our debt levels have risen overnight to €497bn. Factoring in future borrowings that will be required to underwrite the banks' bondholders, this figure can be expected to rise to €560bn in three to four years' time in constant euros. Nominally, the debt pile could reach over €593bn under benign inflation assumptions and before we factor in rolled-up interest.

Getting a new credit card can never solve the problem of an insolvent household. Ditto for an economy.

Assuming the Government projections for increasing the pool of Irish taxpayers materialise -- a tall order assumption in the society where already excessive tax burden is shifting more and more economic activities into cash-only grey markets -- by the end of 2014 total debt of the Exchequer and households will add up to €341,000 per taxpayer.

For a person on average earnings, this adds up to 10 times the current annual pre-tax income.

Let's consider the above numbers from another point of view. Using the 'subsidised' rate of interest attained under the loan deal, the total ex-banks' cost of interest repayments for the Irish economy in 2014 can be expected to be €34.6bn per annum, or more than one-quarter of our entire national income.

Now, imagine the thoughts running across the bond traders' desks when they attempt to calculate our solvency ratios.

In short, debt restructuring -- or in the more direct language of the street, a debt default -- is no longer just an option. Instead, courtesy of the ECB/EU/IMF loan and our own Government's failures to manage the banking and fiscal crises, it is simply unavoidable. Which brings us to the question as to what alternative do we have to minimise the damage to the real economy? At this moment in time we face a painful choice: either we choose a path of orderly restructuring of our banks' debts today, or we face a disorderly collapse of the banking and Exchequer finances two to three years down the road.

The first path requires abandoning the memorandum on the State's bank guarantee, signed with the troika, that commits the Irish State to ensure the continuation of bond repayments to Irish bank bondholders. This step is easy to take.

Within the ECB/EU/IMF team, it was the EU that insisted on underwriting bank bondholders, against the advice of the IMF. Even a simple glance at the numbers above would imply that should the EU continue to adhere to the same position, by 2012-2013 it will have to deal with the worst possible scenario -- an insolvent member state with insolvent banking and household sectors. The fallout from this for the EU would be far worse than some €60-90bn in the debt writedowns required to repair the Irish economy.

The next step -- after shredding the Irish Government commitment to the bank bondholders -- will be to rebuild the banking sector through a structured recapitalisation of the Bank of Ireland and AIB, by a combination of debt-for-equity swap -- setting current bondholders to equity holders in the banks -- the state purchase of shares in the banks at a heavily discounted price, and a restructuring of Irish bank debts to the ECB. Alongside these financial measures, the banks must be cleansed of their top management and reformed in areas of their long-term strategy and operations.

The state guarantee must remain only for the depositors and even this should be limited, after the reforms take place, to deposits under €200,000. A voluntary insurance scheme should be set up for all deposits in excess of that amount. It can be underwritten, in part, by the State in exchange for premium payments out of deposits. Anyone suggesting that a debt-for-equity swap would result in the Irish banking system collapsing altogether should go back to May this year, when the Bank of Ireland carried an €852m conversion of subordinated debt for equity, netting a capital gain of €233m in the process.

Restructuring bank debt today is the only alternative to a disorderly default in a few years' time. The latter outcome would imply -- following Argentina's and other recent scenarios -- a total stop to all functional banking operations in the country and a full restructuring of the sovereign and bank debts, carried out while the markets panic.

Terms and conditions of such a default, from the point of view of Irish households and companies, will be fully determined not by us, but by the international markets running for cover.

The real tragedy of last week's 'rescue' package for Ireland is that by forcing on to our shoulders the entire burden of banking sector debts, the troika has virtually assured the destruction of the very fabric of this economy that represents the only hope for our recovery.

The Irish economy is an economy with great potential for growth. Our entrepreneurs and exporters, our skilled workers and able and creative businesses can be a real engine of robust recovery, if only we can lift the unsustainable debt burden off our shoulders.

Constantin Gurdgiev is adjunct lecturer in Finance with Trinity College, Dublin

[Declan]

Those two articles only confirm what every right thinking person knows about the bailout - We have been sold into bondage and rape by those who were elected to look after our interests. How anyone in their right mind can think that the econmoy will grow or we can even attempt to repay the bank debt is beyond me.
I have read numerous articles from different commentators all over the world and the common theme is that we simply cannot afford this and we will have to default/restructure etc - call it what you will.
I have not heard one cogent argument form the proponents of the deal how this willl help the situation other than blindly stating that they are confident etc.
It is of the utmost imperative for the future of the country that the budget is defeated and a new govt put in place that renegotiates the deal     

[muppet]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1206/lenihan-business.html

Lenihan bottom of FT rankings again

Brian Lenihan has been named as Europe's worst finance minister in a survey of economists by the Financial Times.

Brian Lenihan - 'Overwhelmed' by crisis, says FT

Brian Lenihan has been named as Europe's worst finance minister in a survey of economists by the Financial Times. He was ranked 19th in the survey for the second year in a row.
Germany's Wolfgang Schauble was named as Europe's top finance minister in the survey.
Poland's Jacek Rostowski came in second ahead of last year's winner, France's Christine Lagarde, in the survey of the finance ministers of the European Union's 19 biggest economies. Britain's George Osborne was sixth. Goerge Papaconstantinou of Greece came eighth.
Among other EU members that markets see as having shaky finances, Elena Salgado of Spain shared 17th place with Hungary's Gyorgy Matolcsy, one place ahead of Teixeira dos Santos of Portugal.
The FT's 'jury' of economists ranked the finance ministers on the basis of their political skills - for which Papaconstantinou got top marks - as well as economic performance and credibility in the markets.
Schauble scored well thanks to an expansionary fiscal policy as Germany suffered its worst postwar recession last year and his exit strategy this year as Europe's biggest economy has recovered strongly, the FT said. 'The strength of Germany's rebound was one of the big surprises of 2010,' the newspaper said.
Schauble, 68, was in large part responsible, while also crafting 'an exit strategy to bring public finances closer to balance,' it added.
Brian Lenihan was 'overwhelmed by the crisis in Ireland's banking system and the implosion of the country's economic growth,' the FT said.

[Bogball XV]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1206/lenihan-business.html

Lenihan bottom of FT rankings again

Sure they were all lauding him 2 years ago - not us though, muppet.

It is reported that many of Lenihan's European counterparts have informally consulted him about how such programmes are best introduced, on the margins of European finance ministers meetings in Brussels.

Despite this, Lenihan's actions remain unpopular in many quarters, mainly at home. His domestic critics come in two guises -- one group claim the Lenihan cuts disproportionately fall upon the most vulnerable groups in Irish society, while the other group says his budgetary cuts are only making the downturn worse by reducing overall demand in the economy.

But Lenihan, who is working a full schedule despite his pre-Christmas cancer diagnosis, is viewed entirely differently overseas and on the financial markets, where Ireland's economic destiny will ultimately be decided.

The 'Financial Times', 'The Economist' and several leading German newspapers have written warmly about Lenihan's record and that of the Government. The 'Financial Times' in particular has heaped praise not only on Lenihan's budgetary strategy, but also the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

THE 'Financial Times' has not only praised Lenihan and the Government, it has blasted other commentators who have compared Ireland with other indebted eurozone members. "Ireland is no Greece,'' the paper said at the end of March. "After almost two years of unrelieved misery during which Ireland had sometimes appeared, in local parlance, to have lost the run of itself, a battered and moth-eaten Celtic Tiger may be picking itself up,'' the paper said in the same article.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/brian-lenihan-making-his-mark-2181239.html


The sooner they realise that ministers in general are puppets with little or no understanding of their briefs, the better for all.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/brian-lenihan-making-his-mark-2181239.html

Oh Sweet Jezuz:

As other European finance ministers, directly or indirectly, copy his handiwork, Lenihan can take some satisfaction from the fact that while he is not a prophet in his own land, he is something of a prophet in the land that matters at present -- the financial markets.

What a fecking rag.

[Bogball XV]

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/brian-lenihan-making-his-mark-2181239.html

Oh Sweet Jezuz:

As other European finance ministers, directly or indirectly, copy his handiwork, Lenihan can take some satisfaction from the fact that while he is not a prophet in his own land, he is something of a prophet in the land that matters at present -- the financial markets.

What a fecking rag.

it wasn't just them though and the indo is much better than its sister the sindo.  I remember the FT lauding him, but I can't find the articles now (they've maybe tried to erase all electronic records of same).