Saturday 7 September 2013

THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e Sep 8th 2013

It's been a while and apologies for that, busy on other duties. I see it's being widely reported that we're almost out of our 'bailout, that Ireland will be all free and clear in a few months, Europe even providing a new multi-billion-euro backstop for us to help us regain our economic independence.

That's it then, mission accomplished by the Troika.

Man, how we've been rolled over, how we've been sliced and diced and neatly packaged. How much debt write-off did we get in this 'bailout'? By how much has our national debt been reduced? Not a cent you say, in answer to the first? Not a cent you say again, in a reply to the second? What, the national debt has increased to the tune of tens of billions? And that's a bailout? 

I saw a clip during the week showing Richie Boucher again doing his thing at the Oireachtas Finance Committee meeting. In explaining how it is that at least 90% of the Bank Of Ireland's renegotiated mortgages will end up paying the bank more than what had been agreed in the original mortgage deal, the bould Boucher put it very bluntly to Stephen Donnelly TD -"Unless there is a writedown, the total repayment by the customer increases."

Doesn't exactly the same principle apply on a national level - if Ireland didn't get debt writedown (and we didn't), doesn't our total repayment increase? Extend and pretend, that's the policy of Bank Of Ireland, that's the policy of the EU/EC/ECB in dealing with Ireland. We are debt slaves, our children are debt slaves, their children likewise.

Nearly €70bn we've been forced to plough into our banks, to rescue the euro, to rescue the big investment banks in Europe and elsewhere, to rescue those Irish banks themselves. We know the projected cost of the €25bn Promissory Note Bonds currently held by the Central Bank, €25bn which will be burned in its entirety as it's taken in by the Central Bank but €25bn that will cost several generations €47bn in interest, plus the €25bn itself - that's €72bn. So how much will the remaining €45bn that we've ploughed into the banks cost us? It won't stop at €200bn, be sure of that.

But the con-job is complete. Just as Irish people nowadays speak of the Great Famine of the 1840s, now we speak of the 'bailout for Ireland' - the propaganda has worked. There was no famine of course; there was failure of the staple crop of the people but there was still food a-plenty, denied to the starving millions. There was no bailout for Ireland here either - bailout for the banks, the euro, the banks bondholders, the EU/EC/ECB, but for us? Debt piled on debt.

Ye know of course that we're still bailing out the banks and their bondholders (see the tables below), ye know they'll soon be back to us again, begging bowl in hand?

Ye know too ye can put an end to this. If ye just take a stand.


2 comments:

  1. Myself and my young family emigrated a few months ago, partly because of the... (I'm struggling to come up with words to describe it here)

    ...this whole "carry on" with the bondholders, the so-called bailout, the banks, the politicians, and the lack of action and the total abdication of responsibility by the people of Ireland.

    I've tried to figure out why we Irish people accept this pillage. I've read history books, geography books, economics books, blogs, discussion forums, and spoke to people as best I could to try and get a sense of where the acceptance and apathy come from.

    I'm lost to be honest. I can only surmise that the remote location and lack of natural resources, combined with our lovely colonial history have conspired to produce the collective submissive mindset we have today.

    I wish you all the best Diarmaid, and I apologise for the melodramatic statement to finish here, but I think Ireland needs a Nelson Mandela type of figure to change the current attitude.

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