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'.