I can’t understand that Nationwide figure. For a fairly bit part player they have swallowed up some amount of cash.
I know it’s not much good now, but going forward, is there any way to bring in laws to make institutions like banks, which are of “systemic importance”, sign up to a code conduct, enforceable by law, and if they are found to be in breach of this then the Chief Executive, Chairman etc are liable for criminal prosecution?
Tell me this all you financially astute guru sorts,would the AIB shares be worth chancing at 44cent?,im considering having a go.
Would BOI not be a “better” bet at 58c?
Im looking for guidance on this matter,will the AIB/BOI shares fall even more in the coming Weeks,should I strike now or wait etc
I’ve no idea
“Final total” my hole. More drip drip bad news shite.
Lenihan’s masterstroke has bought us time to sort out our own problems
October 1, 2008
| Politics by David McWilliams
We are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed, some Irish banks have been so recklessly managed they hardly deserve to be covered by the guarantee.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has made a wise choice. By coming up with a unique, Irish plan — guaranteeing all deposits — instead of importing a failed solution from abroad, he has instilled confidence in the Irish financial system.
Most importantly, Irish banks are now safe. This is the single most crucial upshot of yesterday’s move.
Political and financial reaction has been positive and, encouragingly for the challenges ahead, when everyone else around him was losing their heads the minister kept his.
The financial markets abroad have taken the news very positively. This is doubly impressive when you think of what is going on outside the country. Granted the markets will be jittery and unstable for some significant time to come.
However, by drawing a line in the sand and by indicating that the sovereign state will do its job and preserve the system, the minister has shown real leadership.
We now have an anchor and the stability banks needed to sort out their own houses. The whole point of this is to get credit and loans back into the real economy as quickly as possible.
Nor should the guarantee come for free. The chastened banks will now have to accelerate their process of writing down loans, sort out bad debts, bring developers to book and repay the Government’s trust, not in their own interest, but in the national interest.
One way of looking at these events — when sellers are attacking the Irish system — is to compare it to a military attack.
Time is of the essence. If the defences are crumbling everywhere — as they have been in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and the USA — it’s no use mounting the same defences as those which have been overwhelmed elsewhere.
You have to insulate your own system first by using tactics that no one else has deployed.
Near term, this government guarantee obliterates the sellers who do not have Ireland’s national interest at heart.
Further out, it also buys us time to sort out our problems. (I’d have paid good money to see the faces of hedge-fund managers in London yesterday morning when they suddenly became conscious that their strategy against Ireland was in tatters and they realised that they stood to lose the millions they gambled against the Irish system).
We are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed, some Irish banks have been so recklessly managed that they hardly deserve to be covered by the guarantee, but the choice was between the system or bust.
The minister obviously thought that by guaranteeing some banks and not others — as many of his advisers argued — he would open up the prospects of the weaker banks undermining the stronger ones. He has put the system first and this can only be a good thing.
As this column has argued before, there is plenty of time for recrimination. By keeping the banks liquid, the private sector will solve the problem of writing down bad loans, working with debtors to get the best deal and, most importantly, by doing all this in a controlled, not panicked fashion. When people are panicking, they tend to make the wrong decisions.
The nub of the minister’s dilemma was how to do something revolutionary that was quick, decisive and, most importantly, simple.
If we look at what the rest of the world is doing to try to stabilise their banks, we see all sorts of convoluted plans which amount simply to a large game of pass the parcel.
Every time a weak bank is passed on to a not-so-weak bank, market confidence takes a hammering and we are back to square one. The guarantee eliminates all this nonsense.
Now, we have to plot the next phase. How do we keep credit flowing in to those parts of the real economy which are productive? How do we accelerate the process of cleaning up the banks’ balance sheets and in time, and how do we punish those who recklessly got us into the mess?
But yesterday was for action not ideology; it was for stability not recrimination; and, most crucially, it was a time for practicality not complexity.
Over the course of the next few days, we are likely to see capital inflows into the Irish banking system as investors elsewhere seek the sanctity of a government bank guarantee as opposed to the uncertainty of a bank deposit, when it is clear that the banks are operating on the hoof.
Longer term, we can expect foreign banks to move here, setting up offices in Ireland and creating a banking industry which will thrive. We have set the template. The upside greatly outweighs any possible downside. The system is the most important thing at this stage. A threat can now, with the right accompanying policies, be turned into an opportunity.
In time, Brian Lenihan’s move yesterday will be seen as a masterstroke and a practical blueprint for the new financial architecture which will emerge from this global crisis.
29 billion.
:o
Holy mother of Jesus.
I shudder to think of the real state of our finances - I would say that we are hanging on by a thread.
Cowen should be kicked to fuck from Taoiseach. He was directly involved in this mess, and the person to whom the buck ultimately stops. Instead of harping on about him being hungover for an interview, this is the real issue. He says he regrets his decisions - big deal. I am sure Seanie Fitz regrets his decisions as well but he is not Taoiseach of our country.
You sure?
The IMF is a certainty, the Public Service will be slashed in numers and in pay, 12.5% Corporation Tax will go by the board, this country’s trouble is only beginning.
Time to start moving any cash savings to Rabbobank?
Leave the poor man alone farmer - sure he only has a few quiid to get by on every month - the cunt. It would be great to see him doing jail time over all this but you can be full sure he’ll be walking down the fairways in the K Club next spring with all his cronies.
This shit is getting sickening now. To put a measure on how much 29bn is -
It would cover the cost of running NASA for 2 years
It would buy 50 versions of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
. It would buy 126 A380 super jumbo aircraft.
. It would build 44 copies of the Shannon Tunnel in Limerick.
. It would cover 74 new terminals at Dublin Airport.
. You could build 44 new National Children’s Hospitals
We’re doing this to prop up a bank that never really mattered and that none of your average PAYE workers would have had any dealings with. And all this while the government telling us that its a necessity as we can’t let the banks fail. Bollocks to that. I can understand the merits behind keeping AIB and BOI in operation as we need some element of competition but all the rest should be let go to the wall. Maybe the IMF wouldn’t be such a bad alternative to sort this shite out - I’d much prefer them and the risk associated that leaving the current gimps in operation.
How many cola bottles is what I want to know.
How many stan collymores is what I want to know.
Link
you’d be better of buying a tonne of seed potatoes, a few livestock , a couple of shotguns and a fewrolls of barbed wire because things are going to get a bit ugly here for a while
[quote=“Fagan O, post: 53424”]
Why? Is your bird on the way?
:rolleyes:
Runt not having a good day.
It can’t always be Summer, Farmer.
Meanwhile good old Dan Boyle is back on the Twitter Machine and trying to distance himself from the Government:
There can be no sugar coating. These figures are truly horrendous. It tests our willingness to be a responsible party in government.
Dan Boyle is a cunt. You’re either in government or you’re not you tub of lard. Pull the pin if you don’t like it.
‘It tests our willingness to be a responsible party in Government.’
What does that even mean?
Waffle.