The Dirty Dozen w/e Dec 25th 2011

Christmas week, and the generosity of our government - on our behalf - knows no bounds. Have a look at what's coming down the track; if there's a need for anyone to add anything, then we really are finished.

The Dirty Dozen w/e Dec 18th 2011

At what stage do we start to make the connection between the fact that EBS has such a high mortgage interest rate and its need to pay back its fast-maturing bank bonds? Five bonds for an aggregate of €51m on Dec 16th alone (details below), any wonder they're gouging already under-pressure Irish homeowners?

At what stage do we start to make the connection that with €55bn in bonds maturing over the next four years, the Irish banks are in no position to lend money to ANYONE in this economy now, or at any time in the forseeable future? And where do ye think that €55bn will come from - from bank profits? Even in the best of times that scale of profiteering would have been pretty ambitious, but now? So, ye think we're gone past 'injecting' funds into the banks?

At what stage do we make the connection between the billions the ECB is loaning to our Central Bank and the billions our banks are paying out on those failed bonds?

At what stage do we start to question the logic of taking on a €72bn debt, which with interest will easily surpass the €100bn mark, JUST TO ALLOW US make those short-term borrowings from that same ECB?

We were going to struggle anyway to make ends meet on our annual budget but the bank bond debt burden is crushing us. When will we zone in on the very specific questions above, and STAY on those questions until we get the relief that is long overdue?

The Dirty Dozen w/e Dec 11th 2011

And so it begins; no, I'm not talking about the details of another austerity Budget as presented by our puppet government but as dictated by our troika masters, grim as that may be, I'm talking about another month of shame, the December Dirty Dozen, the 12 days pre-Christmas when another €770m is siphoned from us to be paid to bondholders whose failed bets we are being mandated to 'honour'.

Neither Noonan nor Howlin will mention the €43m being paid by Bank of Ireland today, the €24m by Anglo on Wed week, the five individual bonds totaling €52m by EBS on Fri week, all senior unsecured bonds, but all will be paid. Honour?

The Dirty Dozen w/e Dec 4th 2011

Apologies, no update last week, chasing my tail on a number of other subjects, not least the 20-slide/20-seconds per slide presentation in Cork, a considerable challenge for a guy who's exasperated first editor at the Examiner (the legendary Tom Aherne) stated one evening - "If I gave you War & Peace to synopsise 'twould come back longer!"

We didn't miss a whole lot, two smaller bonds paid last week, but this week we're getting into deeper waters. Exactly 12 bonds left in 2011, all in December, and they total a massive €770,000,000. Most of those are senior unsecured, starting with a €43m bond on Monday week, December 5th.

This in a month when - after weeks of softening-up through carefully selected leaks to carefully selected sources - the details of Budget 2012 are announced. The most venerable in our society thrown from familiar surroundings for want of a few hundred thousand while we pay tens of millions on failed bonds, our government paying off the vampires and vultures, the blood-suckers and dead-flesh-eaters of the money markets, while cutting off income and services to all at home.

But sure isn't it all worth it, taking on that additional €100bn of bank bond debt to enable us to borrow €100bn from the ECB, from which we will be able to pay the bank bond billions - all makes perfect sense, right?

Anyway, here they are, the Dirty Dozen for December - Happy Christmas to us all, and Happy New Year to our bondholder friends, a further €3bn in bonds 'maturing' in Jan 2012. A nice way for them to kickstart the year.

The Dirty Dozen w/e Nov 20th 2011

Nothing very dramatic coming up this week or even this month, the fuss over the billion-dollar bond done and dusted our national media has moved on, and yet next month - December - we'll pay out more than we did in November, including THAT bond, a total of 15 bonds for an aggregate of €770m, and in January we pay €3bn. Add the two together and what do you get? Why, €3.77bn, just a few bob shy of the €3.8bn cuts/taxes in Budget 2012 - not THAT'S what I call symmetry!

Some things happen because it's inevitable, some things happen because we let them happen - we're letting this happen, month after month.

The Dirty Dozen w/e Nov 13th 2011

Great effort nationwide to highlight the billion-dollar Anglo bond last week but all gone to waste if we don't continue to shine a light on the fact that this was just one of a continuing series of bonds; starting with a €5bn BoI unsecured bond today (Monday), from here to the end of the year another 15 bonds, all smaller yes but all add up to more than was paid out last Tuesday, to a whopping €787,000,000 in fact. Next year 88 individual bonds for a total of over €19bn, while Irish families suffer torture by a thousand cuts, another €3.8bn of pain in Budget 2012.
It's wrong, plain wrong, that these failed private bonds are paid in full, plus their full 'coupon' (bond interest), while we are asked to suffer cut after cut. 'Moral hazard' me arse - why does no-one ever talk about it as applied to those financial institutions who made those bad investments and aren't made to pay the price, but are protected by the ECB?
Anyway, here they are, the next 'Dirty Dozen'.

The Dirty Dozen w/e Nov 6th 2011

This is it, the week of dishonour, when Anglo Irish Bank (I refuse to call them anything else, despite the attempt at hiding them behind a new name), using OUR money, part of the nearly €30bn our government (this one and the last) has committed to them, 'honours' a billion-dollar bond.
This bond was issued in Nov 2006, has been trading within the last 12 months on the secondary market at 52c - that's a near 50% markdown, so someone stands to make a profit of almost 100% within 12 months. Obscene profiteering, even more obscene when you consider that last week the HSE informed those who are charged with looking after an increasing number of homeless that they would have to do so henceforth with a 10% cut in their budget - why? 'Because the money isn't there'.
The money can be found to pay this bond, however, and the next eleven on this list, and the €20bn due in 2012, the €17bn in 2013, the €25bn in 2014 - who from? Does anyone REALLY believe the banks are going to make that much profit themselves over the next three years?
Even if you've never protested before, join us nationwide this Tue, Nov 1st, at noon; have your own march in your own parish/village/town/city/workplace, no matter how small. But register your objection, let your voice be heard.
If you want to register your objection online, this is the link: http://www.petitiononline.com/isntbb11/petition.html

The Dirty Dozen w/e Oct 30th 2011

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
November 2nd, The Billion-Dollar Heist, a $1,000,000,000 bond falling due from Anglo Irish Bank, an unsecured, unguaranteed bond which - even under that utterly discredited bank guarantee our ill-advised government gave - we have absolutely NO obligation to pay. But this government will pay it.
November 1st, 12 noon; it used to be that this was a time when every community in this country paused, looked to its maker, and offered thanks. On Monday November 1st, at that time, let every community pause for a while, look in the eye those in Frankfurt and Brussels who would be our new masters, those who are insisting we pay this bond, and say no; no, we're not carrying the load for these bondholders anymore; no, we're not going to watch our public services being decimated even as our government funds the banks so they can pay these failed gambles to these massive financial institutions; no, we're not going to stand anymore for the weakest and most vulnerable in our society being crushed so these massive money-monsters can feed; no, we're not going to accept anymore this new order, where saving banks and finance houses is more important than saving people.
Let 12 noon, November 1st 2011, be the moment when this tide turns.
These are the next 12 bonds due - look at number two on the list.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Oct 23rd 2011

The next couple of bonds are mere tiddlers, €5.3m and €8.9m, but then, in two weeks, Wednesday November 2nd, €700,000,000 of a senior unsecured Anglo Irish Bank. If we pay this it will be another in a whole series of shameful acts by this and the previous Irish governments. Seven hundred million euro of our money, a failed bond from a failed bank, a debt we as a nation never incurred but a debt we as a nation are going to pay, under threat from the ECB.

When will this lunacy end, when will this government call a halt to these repeated acts of sovereign betrayal? Don't let this date pass unnoticed, don't let this act pass unchallenged. Do something.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Oct 16th 2011

Another bad week - three bonds mature tomorrow (Tue), all three senior unsecured, adding up to a total of over €70,000,000. Don't let those figures just fly over your head - think instead of what could be done with that money to help this economy, as opposed to handing it over to foreign financial institutions.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Oct 9th 2011

Last week was a good week to be a bondholder in one of the Irish banks, a total of nearly €2bn paid out, the holder of a €1.4bn unsecured bond with AIB doing best of all. Ah we're a generous people, handing over all that money to those financial institutions, failed gambles all but honoured by us all the same.
Appearing for the first time this week the €1bn Anglo Irish Bank bond, the remaining €700m of which falls due for payment on November 2nd. That's Anglo, the zombie bank, and our masters - the ECB - expect that like so many million zombies we will pay that money, follow the path they are dictating for us, the details of which are set out by their local 'controllers' here, our own government.
Thank the heavens for Declan Kidney, Brian O'Driscoll, and all their heroic men.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Oct 2nd 2011

Black Monday this week, in the month of Black September, a €1.465bn bond paid, BoI, senior unsecured. The financial enslavement of an independent state continues unabated, unchallenged at any kind of official level, unexposed on a consistent basis by any of our national media, the Vincent Browne show on TV3 the one honourable exception.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Sep 25th 2011

Black September continues - €805,000,000 on the 22nd this week, €1,465,000,000 due on the 26th, senior unsecured, BOI the very generous benefactor this week, using money we pumped in to provide them with 'liquidity'.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Sep 18th 2011

At a time when we're reading about all the upcoming cuts proposed for Budget 2012, the proposed stealth taxes and levies, if this doesn't stir the blood nothing will. €1.5bn senior unsecured due next Thursday, and will be paid; think of the number of small businesses whose viability that could secure if AIB were instead to put that money into circulation. But it won't; money goes to pay off a failed bond, money our government - that's us - 'injected' into AIB only a few weeks ago.

Changing the format this week; on the basis that's what gone is gone, the Dirty Dozen will in future be the next 12 bonds due to 'mature', the next bond being the one highlighted in red.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Sep 11th 2011

Just when you think it can hardly get any worse, another big one sneaks up on you. The next six bonds to be paid, all within the next few weeks, would be enough to put every hospital back on track, pay for all the Special Needs Assistants who were let go, and still have a good few million left over to pay all those well deserved retirement gratuities for our top civil servants and politicians. Oh, it's €4.1bn, by the way - glad you asked.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Sep 4th update

Another big one has sneaked into the Dirty Dozen - have a look at the last of the next six due for payment, have a look at the total of the next six. €3.8bn, six bonds, senior unsecured - that's our money, our bank 'liquidity injection' of €18bn of July. And there's more to come - €20bn in bank bonds next year, double that in the two following years. We'll borrow from the ECB to pay that, we'll pay their interest, we'll continue to suffocate our own economy. Protest? Who, us?

The Dirty Dozen w/e Sep 4th

It's getting kind of frightening now. Look at the next six bonds, look at the sub-total at the bottom of the link. €18bn we pumped into the banks in July, recapitalisation, but if you're wondering why the money isn't circulating, being pumped into businesses struggling for the oxygen of investment, if you're wondering why the banks are doing all they can to get their full pound of flesh from every mortgage-holder, this is the reason why - €7bn in failed bonds being paid off this year, €20bn next year, €70bn over the next several years. Every week another bond, every week another shipload of money leaving a country heading into another Great Hunger. And still no-one protests, no-one joins us on our weekly march in Ballyhea and Charleville.

The Dirty Dozen w/e Aug 28th update

Apologies folks, took the eye off the ball for a couple of days; last bond paid on Thursday Aug 25th, €7,806,678 senior unsecured B of I; next loan maturing, this Monday, Aug 30th, €18,000,000, Irish Life & Permanent. 18 days to the next really big one, €1.5bn, AIB, senior unsecured, Sep 15th. Is ANYONE watching, anyone counting, anyone caring?

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Aug 28th 2011

No update for last week as no bond matured, but a change this week - note particularly the bond that has now crept in, €1,500,000,000 due on September 15th. Scroll down the side of the Excel attachment to see the sub-totals, the last six paid, the next six due, then wonder at how, even as the government ponders the cuts/taxes for the next 'austerity' budget, we continue to pay those bonds.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Aug 14th update

We paid out over €18,000,000 on three bonds on Wednesday, so they now move from 'impending' to 'paid'. The 'last six' and 'next six' sub-totals change accordingly.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e Aug 14th 2011

€200,000,000 paid today, Monday Aug 8th, next up three bonds this Wednesday. Two big ones around the corner, €1,500,000,000 AIB senior unsecured on Sep 15th, then €1,465,000,000 BoI less than two weeks later, on Sep 26th.

The Dirty Dozen - w/e August 7th 2011

The last six bonds, all fully paid off, the next six due - The Dirty Dozen. Scroll down the insert box and check out the sub-totals - last six, next six, August total, September total. Check that one out especially.



Have ye ever heard of ‘The Bystander Effect’, also known as ‘Genovese Syndrome’? What it boils down to is this; the greater the number of bystanders at a crime scene the less likely it is that any one of them will help. What we are witnessing here is the greatest bank heist of all time. And that's all we're doing, witnessing, watching, standing by as our money is taken from us, millions at a time. I'm currently on a 7-day bread n' water fast to try to highlight this injustice, but who gives a damn?