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Read it and weep…
The IMF are on the horizon I’m afraid. This won’t end well for us.
The bank guarantee has been a disaster from day one. We’ve become a banking system with a country tagged onto it rather than a country with a banking system. Lenihan was assured by the banks two years ago that Anglo needed €4b and that BOI and AIB were perfectly solvent. Since Sept ’08, the Anglo figure has multiplied by a factor of 8 and we’re now pumping €10b into AIB. It really does beggar belief. The banks lied through their teeth to Lenihan and those responsible should be marched off the Cliffs Of Moher rather than paid off with a big juicy pension. It sickens my hole that in all liklihood Fitzpatrick, Fingleton and their ilk will get away without a glove being landed on them by the courts.
Biffo and his government haven’t a notion how to sort this out and the public have no faith in them whatsoever. Why should we believe that we won’t have to pump even more into the Anglo black hole in the future? I doubt Enda and the Blueshirts would be any better and although Labour’s popularity is on the rise – they won’t take on the Unions, tear up the Croke Park Agreement, and make the cuts that are necessary in the public service. Lenihan is now telling us that he’ll need to make more than €3b in cuts in the upcoming budget so there’s going to have to be massive cuts in the public service. This would be the one minor positive if the IMF come calling – the unions’ demands would fall on deaf ears.
Ireland is a great nation but an elite of greedy bankers/developers/builders and eejit politians have brought the place to its knees. There’s very little future for so many young people in this country. For years our best and brightest emigrated to make a better life for themselves. We all thought those days were long gone but they’re back with a vengeance.
An rud nach bhfuil leigheas air caithfear cur suas leis
Long rather liked the sturdy and attractive new-build the Irish splatter across the countryside and the tasteful (by British standards) larger estate developments on the periphery of towns, but on my last two trips (2008/9) have been amazed at just how much has sprung up in recent years. At the risk of being wise after the event, it did all rather scream boom ‘n’ bubble: a population a tenth that of the UK with development on a par with the latter’s it seemed.
Ireland is a great nation but an elite of greedy bankers/developers/builders and eejit politians have brought the place to its knees
Probably unfair to single Ireland out; that’s pretty much common to all countries whose pseudo-wealth was generated by the crazy credit explosion i.e most in the Capitalist Old World, though being a small economy Ireland’s resilience to the fallout is not that of, say, Germany
Don’t worry chaps, Britain went begging to the IMF in 1976 and we’re still here to tell the tale.
£4bn loan if memory serves which equates to circa £20bn today using RPI
Small beer?
Ireland is a great nation but an elite of greedy bankers/developers/builders and eejit politians have brought the place to its knees
Probably unfair to single Ireland out; that’s pretty much common to all countries whose pseudo-wealth was generated by the crazy credit explosion i.e most in the Capitalist Old World, though being a small economy Ireland’s resilience to the fallout is not that of, say, Germany
Many countries have followed a similar pattern. But I’d safely say that our politicians are the most corrupt and incompetant in the free world.
Just have a look at the depths our ex-Taoiseach and presidential hopeful (christ almighty!) is willing to sink to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEupW8oc87A (after 0:25)
We have a Taoiseach who’s that thirsty he can’t even wait for his porter to settle:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/14/article-1312058-0B2F7CC0000005DC-169_233x423.jpg
We have a Health Minister who is obese:
http://newsfeed.tcm.ie/images/people/maryharneyagain.jpg
This was our idea of a Minister for Defence:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3Yb3JoRSrzo/SVEV-yH87yI/AAAAAAAAAHE/L_yK2iwwkvY/s400/bigwillie.jpg
And to top it all we had a Minister for Finance in the 1990s who claimed not to have a bank account! "the money was under me matress sir, I won it all on a horse"
Seems like capitalism is a failure . It just don’t work. I would feel safer with the mafia running the country than have the bankers do it.Ireland, Greece, Spain, Iceland et.al. and how many more raped and plundered by the banks.Seems to me that empires are built on slavery and now the empires are strictly money ones and the slaves are the ordinary people who pack the burdens and carry the water and work 10 hour days(husband and wife) and untill they are 68 to keep the bankers in luxury.Where is the mafia now that we need them to administer justice?I feel like I am looking at a world made by evil man to advance themselves. We got rid of the unions and the people have no voice anymore in the affairs of state.The worse it got in Rome the bigger the circuses. Now we have World Cups and Ryder Cups and Cup winner Cups and Miss Universe and Miss World and Miss America.We have mobile phones and YouTube and access to movies and television 24 7.Entertainment didn’t save Rome and it won’t save us.And all the time we are getting poorer and poorer.Suddenly everybody in the US wants the right to carry a gun. And we are all angry because we have to pay taxes to finance the bail out of the millionaires.Never thought I would see the day.I thought that the first thing Obama would do would be to bail out the poor instead he bailed out his Harvard banker friends.Tragic.
The worse it got in Rome the bigger the circuses. Now we have World Cups and Ryder Cups and Cup winner Cups and Miss Universe and Miss World and Miss America.We have mobile phones and YouTube and access to movies and television 24 7.Entertainment didn’t save Rome and it won’t save us.And all the time we are getting poorer and poorer.Suddenly everybody in the US wants the right to carry a gun. And we are all angry because we have to pay taxes to finance the bail out of the millionaires.Never thought I would see the day.I thought that the first thing Obama would do would be to bail out the poor instead he bailed out his Harvard banker friends.Tragic.
Whoa now, you can take off that tinfoil hat. You’ll be pleased to know that nobody cares about Miss America anymore. It isn’t even televised. Same with Miss Universe, Miss World, and both of the sporting events that you’ve metnioned. And by "suddenly" I presume you mean 310 years ago, cause that’s when the right to bear arms was added to the Constitution. Funny that you blame it on capitalism, when our Republicans are calling the bank bailouts (most of which occurred under the Bush administration) proof that Obama’s an evil socialist. These are the same guys that have consistently blocked Obama’s attempts to actually help the poor. Quit with the doomsday prophecies.
I am not blaiming the bailouts on capitalism I am blaimimg the collapse of capitalism on the system which we have in the US. The banks cannot live with integrity.They are the heart of capitalism and they failed and so capitalism failed.They were bailed out by the peoples money. Obama had the honeymoon to direct the bailout wherever he liked and he chose to support the bankers who caused the depression rather than the people who suffered from it.I am not interested in what the democrats or the republicans say I am giving you my opinion.
The big farmer
from Offaly, like the boozy bookie (Charles Haughey) before him does have the demeanour of one who takes a drink. I trust there was a shamrock impressed in the head of the too-hastily slugged liffey liqueur 
Your healthy minister reminds me of Dawn-French-after-a-heavy-night-no-make-up-bad-hair-day-really-let-herself-go-shame-iniit-big-girls-really-should-make-an-effort
Is Garret Fitzgerald still around? Had a bit of time for him…I think
wither Ireland, wither Britain, wither the old order
whither are we headingLets not start comparing ministers.Name calling is hardly helpful when there is enough to go round with Blair and torture and all that kind of stuff.And who they remind you of.Seems like every discussion turns ugly with that approach.Of course what his opponents call Obama is nobodies business.Normally those who are lost for logic go that route.
Ireland should have never joined the Euro, even the Liberals are now admitting that they were wrong to try and get the UK to sign up to it.
The tax-payers in Ireland will have to pay all of this borrowed money back, if they weren’t in the Euro they would be able to de-value their currency and raise interest rates.
As for Irish politicians, I can’t see any of them being affected.
They’ve nationalised capitalism .. capitalism fails yet again lol
Seems like capitalism is not the answer.Neither it seems is organised religion.Neither seem willing to give up their riches to pin point the needs of the poor of this world who are our brothers and sisters.I read how the people of France took everyone down during the revolution.Perhaps we will have a similar revolution here in the USA one of these days.The Tea Party seem ready to strike out. Hope it does not happen but who knows? From each according to their means.To each according to their needs.Seems reasonable.Except some have an insatiable appetite for wealth.
Any political system unchecked will fail, be it capitalism or socialism. There are plenty of countries who’ve tried the latter and failed with a big fat F – you don’t need me to name them.
Although there are a number of reasons unique to Australia, they are a large capitalist democracy that didn’t fall foul of the banking/credit crisis that most of the others did. Yet this is never mentioned by most of the msm – why? Is it because our journalists are too thick to find out / too thick to understand world economics and make reasonable comparisons or because to point out economies that didn’t go tits-up would make our last labour government less able to blame everyone but themselves?
Canada too didn’t suffer anything like the USA or EU economies. True, they had their own economic meltdown a few years before the rest and addressed the issues that led to it and thus were less exposed to the recent economic madness. Still, if you want to hear an all-round analysis of democratic "western" economies who didn’t fall-foul of the present crisis, you have to look further than the BBC and our sub-standard, quick headline, shallow analytical newspapers. When you do, it becomes clear that Gordon Brown and his apparatchiks, can’t blame it all on the bankers.Grim reading:
http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2010/oct/03/government-must-find-45bn-of-cuts-in-decembers-bud/
Sickening:
http://www.tribune.ie/news/home-news/article/2010/oct/03/the-untouchables/
Is Garret Fitzgerald still around? Had a bit of time for him…I think
He’s still around alright. Well into his 80s at this stage. His thoughts on the current situation:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/1002/1224280187388.html
This country needs a Seán Lemass and a TK Whittaker to emerge. The lack of leadership at the top is frightening.
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Nothing more than we deserve if Im honest, we were all ripping off each other in some form or another 3/4 years ago wether it was charging 10 euro for a sandwich and cup of coffee or outragious fees for plumbing etc.
Everyone in Ireland is to blame for this not just the politicians, we all got greedy and had no respect for money.
IMO Irish people are more than happy to ring up radio programmes and email in to shows about this topic but the notible thing is nobody is bothered to get up off their arse and actually do something about it.
We all keep on complaining about the banks and how unfair this all is, and also how are the bankers getting away with it. Why don’t all Irish people stand up and be counted rather than emailing into Joe Duffy.
Granted the politicians and bankers actually disgracefully but ethically we all acted the same, we were all only too happy to rip off each other, it was caled rip off Ireland for a reason…
I hope we are known as the stupid Irish Paddys all across the world because to be honest we deserve to be.
Nothing more than we deserve if Im honest, we were all ripping off each other in some form or another 3/4 years ago wether it was charging 10 euro for a sandwich and cup of coffee or outragious fees for plumbing etc.
Everyone in Ireland is to blame for this not just the politicians, we all got greedy and had no respect for money.
That is simply not true. Sure, their were plenty of people who were willing to avail of 100% mortgages but not everyone was stupid enough to be buying investment properties in Longford and Leitrim for €300,000+.
To suggest that Irish citizens deserve this because they were not frugal with their money is wrong. The government and the banks fuelled the property bubble, not the people. Even as late as September ’08, both the banks and the politicians were still telling us that everything was ok.
IMO Irish people are more than happy to ring up radio programmes and email in to shows about this topic but the notible thing is nobody is bothered to get up off their [expletive] and actually do something about it.
We all keep on complaining about the banks and how unfair this all is, and also how are the bankers getting away with it. Why don’t all Irish people stand up and be counted rather than emailing into Joe Duffy.
You have a point here re the Joe Duffy rabble on the Vileline. People like sheep will vote for the same muppets again next time round because of our parish pump system. "Arrah sure Micky D is a fine fellah. Didn’t he fill in the few potholes down the boreen and sort out the planning for Seánie Jnr". I can guarantee that O’Donoghue will top the poll in South Kerry again and I’d be certain that Ahern would be elected on the first count in Dublin if he decides to run again.
The lasting legacy of the Civil War is that our two main political parties are almost identical. The notion that Labour might outpoll both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is unrealistic. Éamon Gilmore is 11/8 to be the next Taoiseach but I just can’t see that happening. It’s all well and good performing in the opinion polls but come election time, people will revert to type and vote for the same old faces. I do anticipate Fine Gael will attempt to move against Kenny again in the next few months though.
At least the gombeens cant destroy this. Vote to make it one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.
from Offaly, like the boozy bookie (Charles Haughey) before him does have the demeanour of one who takes a drink. I trust there was a shamrock impressed in the head of the too-hastily slugged liffey liqueur 
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