SATURDAY STORY OF THE WEEK
I’m no economist, but you don’t have to know much to know that this was a mind-bending, historical, surreal .. no, no need for a list of extreme adjectives, sure we have a special term for it in Ireland – GUBU
If you are too young to know what GUBU is, sure wikipedia can help.
We are back in ‘GUBU land’ mark 2, multiplied by a factor of billions.
Remember we are in a country of a little over 4 million people. Some random stats and quotes from the week
Anglo Irish Bank lost €12.7 billion for the 15 months to end of December 2009 after writing off €15 billion in bad loans. This toxic bank will probably require another €10 billion of taxpayers’ money on top of the €8.3 billion already committed as part of the NAMA process.
Bank of Ireland reported a pre-tax loss of €1.8 billion with underlying losses soaring to €2.9 billion
On Wednesday the Govt committed €21.8 billion to recapitalisation of Irish banks
Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh said “All the good banking and lending principles went out the window”
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said
“The detailed information that has emerged from the banks in the course of the Nama process is truly shocking. At every hand’s turn, our worst fears have been surpassed … The banks played fast and loose with the economic interests of this country.”
Trouble is he and his boss were in Govt and actively fueling the madness that has bankrupted the country.
Richard Bruton says that the Govts policy to rescure Anglo-Irish Bank is “jeopardising our future as a nation” and the NAMA process will “double our national debt”.
Best quote? Eamon Gilmore, Labour leader,
“It is the day that crystallises more than a decade of mismanagement of our economy and bad government by Fianna Fáil.”
So what do you make of this biggest of economic weeks? A necessary evil to bail out the Banks, especially Anglo, to ensure the survival of the system itself? Or deeply ethically wrong that the taxpayer [the public purse] effectively takes on the recklessly accumulated private debts of shareholders in the banks?
FaithinIreland 