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

[seafoid]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1209/1224285100507.html

IRISH BANKS repaid €68.8 billion to senior bondholders and €1.4 billion to subordinated bondholders as their full debt fell due under the two-year blanket guarantee which ended in September, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has said.
This meant that no bondholder had to share in the €60 billion recapitalisation costs of the domestic banks.
"As is normal practice when bonds mature, they are repaid – in this instance all were senior bonds and all were Government guaranteed. Furthermore, under Irish law senior debt obligations rank equally with deposits and other creditors," said Mr Lenihan.

And receivers of large bonuses evidently.

And under Irish law the NPRF is for the funding of future PS entitlements and not a plaything of the government.

"Keady chuckles at the mere mention of Linnane. "Sylvie used have a great oul' saying in the dressing-room," he smiles. "He'd say: 'Lads, ye'll win nothing if ye haven't a few tinkers in the team.' And we'd say: 'Well, we're delighted to have you anyway Sylvie!'" "

Ireland needs a few tinkers.

[muppet]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1209/1224285100507.html

IRISH BANKS repaid €68.8 billion to senior bondholders and €1.4 billion to subordinated bondholders as their full debt fell due under the two-year blanket guarantee which ended in September, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has said.
This meant that no bondholder had to share in the €60 billion recapitalisation costs of the domestic banks.
"As is normal practice when bonds mature, they are repaid – in this instance all were senior bonds and all were Government guaranteed. Furthermore, under Irish law senior debt obligations rank equally with deposits and other creditors," said Mr Lenihan.

And receivers of large bonuses evidently.

And under Irish law the NPRF is for the funding of future PS entitlements and not a plaything of the government.

"Keady chuckles at the mere mention of Linnane. "Sylvie used have a great oul' saying in the dressing-room," he smiles. "He'd say: 'Lads, ye'll win nothing if ye haven't a few tinkers in the team.' And we'd say: 'Well, we're delighted to have you anyway Sylvie!'" "

Ireland needs a few tinkers.

Yes but we've enough in the Dáil.

[Bogball XV]

That story is not in the Irish Times. I wonder why.  Or are they just all lining their pockets like Foy?

It was in the Sindo last weekend.  Seems pretty sensational, but when you read the detail, you can do nothing but throw your hands up in despair.

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/bailedout-banks-still-giving-staff-big-bonuses-2449958.html

[seafoid]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1209/1224285100507.html

IRISH BANKS repaid €68.8 billion to senior bondholders and €1.4 billion to subordinated bondholders as their full debt fell due under the two-year blanket guarantee which ended in September, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has said.
This meant that no bondholder had to share in the €60 billion recapitalisation costs of the domestic banks.
"As is normal practice when bonds mature, they are repaid – in this instance all were senior bonds and all were Government guaranteed. Furthermore, under Irish law senior debt obligations rank equally with deposits and other creditors," said Mr Lenihan.

And receivers of large bonuses evidently.

And under Irish law the NPRF is for the funding of future PS entitlements and not a plaything of the government.

"Keady chuckles at the mere mention of Linnane. "Sylvie used have a great oul' saying in the dressing-room," he smiles. "He'd say: 'Lads, ye'll win nothing if ye haven't a few tinkers in the team.' And we'd say: 'Well, we're delighted to have you anyway Sylvie!'" "

Ireland needs a few tinkers.

Yes but we've enough in the Dáil.

Ones who fight dirty .

[Declan]

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Dublin . She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the  customers loans).

Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Dublin .  By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi  gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages.

Consequently,  Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively. A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS,  ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then bundled and traded on international security markets. Naive investors don't really understand  that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really
the debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. He so informs Heidi.

Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy.

The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs.  Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%.

The collapsed bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.

The suppliers of Heidi's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the various BOND securities.

They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with  losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors  a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who  immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion dollar, no-strings attached cash infusion from their power-drunk cronies in Government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Heidi's bar.

So now, you understand economics in 2010.

[Lar Naparka]

It's quite probable that he will find himself Leader of the Opposition after the next election and Enda had better smarten up.

he has less to lose than most in that his ministerial pension won't be as significant as the rest of the cabinet, but I have heard that health issues will preclude his even standing.

It would be shocking if he his party voted him in with his record over the last 2 years, twice voted europe's worst finance minister and more tellingly, his record proves that this is probably the case.

No doubt about it; he plans to stand alright and, what's more, he is gunning for Biffo's job. Didn't Auntie Mary give some clucky clucky advice to Mrs Cowan a few days ago; telling her she should persuade her poor hardworking husband to give up the oul' job because the pressure was getting to the poor fella?
The softest part of Mary is her teeth to put it mildly if ungrammatically. She wants to see her favourite nephew take over the party leadership before she stands down at the end of the present Dail. Brian is clearly planning to do just that and it came across clearly in his interview with Vincent Browne in the aftermath of his budget presentation. Browne did a poor job of pinning him down on the number of inaccurate and downright false statements on the state of the economy he had issued in recent times. Lenihan was quick to put distance between himself and Biffo in his replies. If you were to believe the hoor, everything bad can be traced back to 'pre2008'decisions or statements made by Cowan and not himself.
Inexplicably, Browne gave up trying to nail him down and switched to another topic when it was obvious that Lenihan was waffling. On the other hand, Lenihan was straightforward about his current income. He takes home, sez he, €90,000 of his current income. (I presume he was talking about the present year.)
I expect him to be the one to oust Cowan because he seems to be the best of a very bad lot. I know the decision is up to the parliamentary party members but I don't see either Martin or Hanafin being credible alternatives.

[Bogball XV]

So now, you understand economics in 2010.

That should be taught in every school, it's pretty accurate and definitely memorable - it would be good to have it re-iterated at various points throughout the syllabi for banking exams too.

To expand it a little, you could include how trading on the future prices of alkibonds et al was introduced to further expand the range of products, and of course, it would need a little nod given to the infamous contracts for difference

[Bensars]

AIB Executive Chairman David Hodgkinson has told staff that the issuing of the €40m in bonuses to executives 'reflects the past'.

Mr Hodgkinson made his comments in a note to staff this morning after it emerged that 2,400 workers will receive an average bonus of €16,700.

AIB will give the bonuses after several staff took court action to secure the payments.

The payments are part of contracts signed before the financial crisis began in 2008.

It is believed that cheques will be posted to executives on 17 December.


'Whilst this is legally required of us, it reflects the past and is not the way we intend to conduct ourselves in future,' Mr Hodgkinson said.

He added: 'The issues we are facing mean that the bank currently relies on government and taxpayer support and I am working to ensure that, in future, our pay and benefits policy is more reflective of our organisation's responsibilities, performance and of the economic climate in general.'


The bank has so far received €3.5bn of recapitalisation funds from the State.

Shares in the bank have plummeted from €23.95 to just 50c over the last two years.

The €40m represents a significant part of the €572.9m the bank is worth on the ISEQ today. Almost €55m was paid to staff in bonuses last year.

The issue was raised by Opposition parties in the Dáil this morning.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said that the bonuses would amount to more than what a carer would get all year.

IDA Ireland Chief Executive Barry O'Leary has said it is 'bizarre' that AIB is paying €40m in bonuses to executives.

Mr O'Leary told RTÉ Radio that he wished the IDA had that sort of money to repair the country's tarnished reputation on the international scene.

Elsewhere, Fine Gael is to propose amendments to legislation to impose a 99% 'super tax' on bankers' bonuses.

The amendments are to be put down to the Financial Emergency Measures Bill, which is due to clear all stages in the Dáil by tomorrow afternoon.

Banking spokesperson Damien English said the proposed amendments would 'tax these immoral bonuses out of existence.'
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1209/aib.html

[Tyrones own]

The result of entrenched socialized entitlements... coming to an Ireland/America near you

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101209/wl_nm/us_britain_politics

[scud]

The result of entrenched socialized entitlements... coming to an Ireland/America near you

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101209/wl_nm/us_britain_politics

What are entrenched socialized elements?

[Tyrones own]

What are entrenched socialized elements?

Not sure...

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Probably the sickest joke in 2010.

Pre-Irish Budget 2010, the Irish Government (Cowen, Lenihan, and the rest of those fcukin wasters) state that "...the pain will be shared".

At that point, the Taoiseach was on thirteen (yep, 13 -- worth it, eh?) times the salary of someone on the minimum wage.

Post-Irish Budget 2010, the durty rotten buffoon of a Biffo will be on FOURTEEN TIMES the salary of someone on the minimum wage.

They're beyond traitors.

The Millionaires' Budget

[Hound]

Probably the sickest joke in 2010.

Pre-Irish Budget 2010, the Irish Government (Cowen, Lenihan, and the rest of those fcukin wasters) state that "...the pain will be shared".

At that point, the Taoiseach was on thirteen (yep, 13 -- worth it, eh?) times the salary of someone on the minimum wage.

Post-Irish Budget 2010, the durty rotten buffoon of a Biffo will be on FOURTEEN TIMES the salary of someone on the minimum wage.

They're beyond traitors.

The Millionaires' Budget

That's a load of bladdy codswallop.
Comparing the minimum wage to the taoiseach's salary? FFS, catch a grip.

And as for the figures of the very high self-employed earners being better off (and let's ignore that they've been hit by previous budgets and they'll be hit hard by the pension relief restrictions, so I doubt there'll be any actually better off) - but if you're self-employed and earning say €250,000 a year, you can be sure you've worked damn hard over a long number of years to get there, and you can be sure you're very good at what you do - plus you're likely to be employing people, and contributing payroll taxes and VAT to the exchequer - not to mention your individual taxes on their own would pay for 10 people on the dole every year, despite the dole being so high in the country.

These people have contributed hugely and are contributing hugely, and yet people want to target these people more, and ignore the thousands who havent contributed a cent in years, if ever

[scud]

Probably the sickest joke in 2010.

Pre-Irish Budget 2010, the Irish Government (Cowen, Lenihan, and the rest of those fcukin wasters) state that "...the pain will be shared".

At that point, the Taoiseach was on thirteen (yep, 13 -- worth it, eh?) times the salary of someone on the minimum wage.

Post-Irish Budget 2010, the durty rotten buffoon of a Biffo will be on FOURTEEN TIMES the salary of someone on the minimum wage.

They're beyond traitors.

The Millionaires' Budget

That's a load of bladdy codswallop.
Comparing the minimum wage to the taoiseach's salary? FFS, catch a grip.

And as for the figures of the very high self-employed earners being better off (and let's ignore that they've been hit by previous budgets and they'll be hit hard by the pension relief restrictions, so I doubt there'll be any actually better off) - but if you're self-employed and earning say €250,000 a year, you can be sure you've worked damn hard over a long number of years to get there, and you can be sure you're very good at what you do - plus you're likely to be employing people, and contributing payroll taxes and VAT to the exchequer - not to mention your individual taxes on their own would pay for 10 people on the dole every year, despite the dole being so high in the country.

These people have contributed hugely and are contributing hugely, and yet people want to target these people more, and ignore the thousands who havent contributed a cent in years, if ever

This is typical right-wing 'market knows best' garbage. Lets go a step further and lower taxes for the rich, that way these higher dimensional beings can go forth and make more money, which will of course trickle down to the rest of society....

Some of these people may have contributed hugely, most have benefitted hugely - from a tax system designed by the rich, for the rich

[bailestil]

This is typical right-wing 'market knows best' garbage. Lets go a step further and lower taxes for the rich, that way these higher dimensional beings can go forth and make more money, which will of course trickle down to the rest of society....

Some of these people may have contributed hugely, most have benefitted hugely - from a tax system designed by the rich, for the rich

The south seems to be heading towards real socialism at the minute. From Pearse Doherty's musings and Vincent Brown now turning positively communist.

However Like Sinn Fein the north, they spout populist socialism knowing its easy votes. Then they get into power and discover the realisties of life.
Tutition fees in the North, Deputy First Minister?

I would dearly nearly like to see how much of their policies they would introduce if they had an overal majority tomorrow, and how it would all be funded.