THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e Jun 3rd 2012

LOOK DAD - ANOTHER MONSTER!
FRANKENSTEIN 1
In 1999 the EU created what they hoped would be a new Superhero currency, the euro; instead, they had created a monster, a Frankenstein currency. Within a few years the monster had broken free of its chains and wreaked havoc in the economies of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. It was totally out of control, its creators in central Europe oblivious to the damage being caused out on the periphery, even pleased with the booty being sent back to their own areas.

In Ireland we know the damage done by that monster. Over €100bn our banks have so far been forced to pay in failed bonds; €62.8bn we - the Irish people - have so far contributed to those banks, and it's not over yet. €40bn the banks say they still have to pay in bonds; we say €55bn but sure who's counting? Certainly not anyone in RTE, TV3, no-one in national radio, barely a murmur from our national newspapers - where have you heard or read about the €2.25bn AIB bond due today, a bond taken out in May 2008 when the bank was privately owned?

Then again that's par for the course with our national media, who are STILL presenting the sellout by Michael Noonan on the recent €3.1bn Promissory Note as a good 'deal'. Want to know what REALLY happened? Let's say you owe €3,100 to a local loan shark, due by Mar 31st; your local Credit Union has already agreed to lend you the money at a very low rate of interest but you instead go your local bank and take out a loan of €3,100 at a higher interest rate but to be repaid not by you but by your son/daughter in 12 years' time - the loan shark gets his money but you're off the hook, your kids now the bait. Multiply that by a million, that's the Noonan Promissory Note deal.

FRANKENSTEIN 2
In July 2011 Michael Noonan signed up to an agreement which, when ratified by the various governments involved, will see the creation of a body (the ESM, European Stability Mechanism) that will have unlimited and unprecedented power, total immunity from any kind of investigation let alone prosecution written into its design documents. We know we have committed to an initial contribution of €1.27bn to this monster, rising first to €11.1bn, thence - and with only seven days' notice - to any sum the ESM itself demands.

The ECB has accepted absolutely no responsibility for its own massive failings in the creation of Frankenstein 1, the euro, has instead forced the entire cost of all the damage done - and still being done - on nations and peoples across Europe. They are the ones behind the creation of Frankenstein 2, the ESM, they are the ones who will be hidden behind those walls to do whatever, whenever and wherever they want. Transparency, accountability? Words redundant in this new world.

This Thurday we can rock that whole rotten edifice and force a rethink right across Europe, force a redesign of those two monsters. Vote No. The bribery/blackmail clause re access to the fund? This government agreed to the addition of that clause to the ESM Treaty, AFTER it had been first fully negotiated and signed off; if we vote No they can have it removed or simply refuse to sign off on that Treaty, and on any clause enabling that Treaty.

Rant over, the bonds:

THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e May 27th 2012

No bond too big, no bond too small, the Irish banks will pay them all.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, IL&P - a bank deader than any dodo - will pay a bond of €2.2m, unguaranteed unsecured but sure who's watching?

Next Monday, May 28th, AIB will pay a bond worth more than a thousand times that, a bond of €2.25bn taken out four years ago, May 28th 2008, when AIB was still a private bank.

We now own AIB, just as we now own IL&P, acquired both banks during the recent Troubles. Why? So they could rob us, the Irish people, to pay their bondholders. What's this someone said lately - if you're robbing Peter to pay Paul, Peter is going to be very happy with you. So as the troika continue to pat Paddy on the head, dread-driven Paddy continues to tip the ould forelock.

THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e May 20th 2012

Today, May 15th, without comment anywhere except on sites such as this, Anglo paid an unsecured bond of £60,000,000 - that's sixty millon pounds sterling, around €73m. On May 28th, AIB (another debt-ridden bank we now own) will pay a bond of €2.25bn.

I'm asking people, please RT this, Share this information, share this site. Bond by bond this bank debt is being transferred to sovereign; every cent that goes out from Anglo, from AIB, is our money. Before long one or other of those banks will be back to us again, begging bowl out again, the final recapitalisation again.

THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e May 13th 2012

2008
National debt: approx. €44bn
Pension Reserve Fund: approx. €20bn
Net national debt: approx. €30bn.
Budget deficit: approx. €13bn

2012
National debt: approx. €164bn
Pension Reserve Fund: approx. €5bn
Net national debt: approx. €159bn, and rising fast
Budget deficit: approx. €14bn

The troika are thrilled with us for meeting all their targets, the bondholders (the bottom-feeders of the secondary market especially) are amazed at but grateful to us for our generosity, but I ask you - anyone; please tell me what the policy of our governments of appeasing the ECB has gained for us, the Irish people, over the last few years.

We were told it was to save our banking system - that's worked out well for the bondholders, still being paid in full, profit margins and all; how are the people faring at the hands of those banks, how is business faring?

And still our economy bleeds money. €114.7m last week in three bonds, all unsecured, but not a line anywhere in our national media, not a word from TV or radio, not even on the business sections.

Look below at what's coming: €304.6m in ten unsecured bonds, a mouth-watering €2.251bn in two so-called 'covered' bonds. Covered by what, a guarantee issued under false information? One bond, for €2.25bn was taken out by AIB on May 28th 2008 when that bank was still privately owned. We now own it (99.8%), the billions going out of this country on May 28th is our money, apart from the 0.2% - that's €4.5m.

Just reflect on that for a moment. 0.2% of one bond is €4.5m, two lotto wins; that means the bond itself is 500 times €4.5m.

Will there be even a murmur about it?

THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e May 6th 2012

Ten of the dozen this week are unsecured, totalling approx. €288m, Anglo coming in with a nice one for some very lucky bondholder, a £60m bond that falls due on May 14th, which translates at around €74m.

The one that really interests me though is the AIB bond of May 28th. A €2.25bn bond, taken out on May 28th 2008, months before the blanket bank guarantee offered by our then government in Sep 2008. That guarantee was offered based on false information given by the banks (€5bn going to be the total bank bailout cost - remember those heady days?) and therefore - surely - a worthless guarantee. Yet look in the fourth column and there we see it - Covered.

Who, besides those of us who march every week in Ballyhea and Charleville (latest march last Sunday, week 61 - video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc3wQA9Tsf8&feature=youtu.be), is going to challenge this? There is all this focus on Anglo, and rightly so, the failed bonds from a zombie bank, but does anyone know that in the four months Feb/Mar/Apr/May, AIB - which we also own, to the tune of 99.8% - will pay out €5.9bn in bonds?

Who is even going to publicise this, who is going to bring this into the open?
TWITTER LINK: @ballyhea14
SISTER BLOG: thechatteringmagpie14.blogspot.com

THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e April 29th 2012

When most in our media talk about the bank bonds at all (which is rarely) they say they've nearly all been paid at this stage. Not true of course - over €10bn already paid out by our five banks this year, €9bn to go before year's end; a total of €55bn over the years 2012-2015 (incl.) which averages out at nearly €14bn/yr, all bled from the crippled banks of an ailing economy - this sum does NOT include the truly odious Promissory Notes of €3.1/yr.

When this is pointed out to them they then say - 'Ah but most of the remaining bonds are government guaranteed'. Well, as of Mar 1st, a couple of months ago (apols, don't have time to update the figures), in the five remaining banks (Anglo, AIB, BoI, EBS, IL&P) there was still nearly €13bn outstanding in subordinated and unsecured debt. Question though - for what were all those new 'government guaranteed' bonds taken out? To pay other bonds that were coming due, more than likely.

Anyway, take a look at this week's 'Dirty Dozen'; note the senior unsecured Anglo bonds, four over the next four days totalling €56m, another 'maturing' on May 15th, £60m (pounds sterling) which comes in at around €73.6m at today's rates - that's nearly €130m from Anglo in the next dozen bonds.

Irish Life & Permanent - which we also own - also features, a bond of €52m, as does EBS, another of our fine banks, a mere €1.84m - sure that wouldn't even get you a down payment on a Ministerial pension.

THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e April 22nd 2012

Didn't say a word about it, deliberately, just to see if ANYONE in our national media would pick it up - they didn't, thus it is that barely a sinner knows that yesterday, April 16th 2012, Anglo Irish Bank (I absolutely refuse to call it anything else) paid a bond of €1.5bn. Yes, another bond of one thousand five hundred million euro, every cent of that our money, to go with the one thousand five hundred million euro paid out by AIB last week, again almost every cent of which (we own AIB 99%) WAS ours. I stress WAS - that money is now gone.

It was a Government Guaranteed bond this time, as opposed to the €1.25bn senior unsecured bond of Jan 2012 - so what? It's STILL our money, that bond taken out when and for what? Taken out on Apr 15th 2010 to pay off other bonds then coming due, that's when, that's for what.

RTE's main news on Sunday contained a report of news on the jobs front - 20 new jobs being created; it had a report on a partnership agreement with China in the equine industry that will generate €40m over the next three years. Good news, undoubtedly, though the fact that the creation of 20 jobs is now a story of national importance shows how deep in the hole we've been buried. Yet, not a whisper about this ongoing haemorrhaging of our lifeblood from the Irish economy.

Why is that?