Tonight I am heading to see ‘Scrooge’ at the Grand Canal Theatre. I have to reveal an interest and not a little bit of fatherly pride as my daughter plays one of the children.
She has been excited all month by this and of course, the whole family now know all the words and all the chorus lines.
The whole thing prompted me to re-read Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’.
“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.”
While watching moral bankruptcy unfold on Monday’s ‘Prime Time’, I considered that Dickens’ opener could be changed to suit our situation.
“Morality was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of its death was signed by the developer, the solicitor, the banker and the regulator. Cowen signed it himself. Old Morality was dead as a door-nail.”
Moral bankruptcy is not something that can be measured by an accountant. It is not something that can be decided by a court. It can be measured by holding a mirror up to the actions of the people who caused the financial crisis and asking two simple questions. Is this right? And — is this fair?
The obvious answer to both questions is no, and this reflects the moral bankruptcy of our legislature, who would rather cut blind people’s pensions and carers’ allowances, than see their friends in trouble.
Let’s consider NAMA.
NAMA was introduced to prevent the losses in the property market being realised by the banks although they deserve to carry these losses as a result of their reckless lending. The underlying logic of this disgrace was that the government wanted to keep the banks in private hands. Therefore, the losses had to be shouldered by the people so that the banks could be recapitalised by private investors. So moral bankruptcy is the very foundation stone of NAMA because NAMA was constructed to give the people the bill for the banks’ property fiasco, in order to give all the upside to private investors.
However, as predicted by this column, this has not worked and the private investors, conscious of the huge losses in the banks and the likelihood of more property and housing defaults, have run a mile from the likes of AIB.
So AIB, along with Anglo and INBS, are nationalised. But if the banks are nationalised, the (morally bankrupt) raison d’etre for NAMA disappears because nationalised banks don’t need to pretend that they are privately viable anymore because the losses are on the balance sheet. We don’t need another layer of bureaucracy, when you have just nationalised banks. So why not wind down NAMA? Or at least the part of NAMA that pertains to AIB, Anglo and INBS.
This is not an insubstantial figure. NAMA figures as of end September by bank are available in the following publication: (http://bit.ly/d5e7oL).
On page 19 we see the breakdown of NAMA subsidy to the delinquent banks. The AIB total is €23bn, Anglo’s is €36bn and INBS’s is €9bn. To that you can add about another €8bn to AIB as yesterday’s NAMA statement included an extra €16bn from AIB and BOI, but refused to give a breakdown.
But the reason NAMA won’t be closed down has less to do with economics and finance and more to do with the fact that when you unravel NAMA, you see it for what it is: a rescue scheme for the professional classes. There are over €2bn set aside for professional fees in NAMA. There are over 70 firms of solicitors on the payroll of NAMA — and you are paying for all this.
So a small clique of insiders is benefiting from this and you, the “outsider”, pays for it. Indeed, so certain of their position are they, that they don’t care about even offering the slightest semblance of morality. Like the banks, which have lied and lied and lied again, the professional insiders are giving the two fingers to us — the people who pay their wages.
Take the case of Foy solicitors which was raised in the ‘Prime Time’ programme. Foy is one of the many solicitors that have been contracted by NAMA for the provision of legal services in relation to the acquisition of bank assets by NAMA. But as we learned on Monday night, they are also helping developers move assets out of the reach of NAMA. All of this is, of course, completely legal but, it must be asked, how it can be allowed to happen.
Of course, the moral bankruptcy extends way beyond all this. Yesterday, the European Commission approved the latest bailout of Anglo, Irish Nationwide and AIB. (See press release here: http://bit.ly/hNouMa). The bigwigs in Brussels have decided that it is acceptable for the Irish taxpayer to continue to pour money into the black hole on St Stephen’s Green. In case you missed it, this line from the statement means we are giving further guarantees to Anglo: “Anglo Irish Bank will furthermore receive a guarantee covering certain off-balance sheet liabilities (derivatives, clearing transactions and transactional arrangements) that will ensure that Anglo Irish Bank can continue its daily activities as a going concern.”
Note 16 of Anglo’s 2010 interim report puts the notional value of that bank’s derivative positions at €184.77bn.
While it is highly unlikely that the derivative bill from Anglo will be close to that figure, the fact that we are now going to guarantee Anglo’s off-balance sheet items is madness in the extreme.
The Irish guarantee is incredible already. What was a last-gasp bluff over two years ago, allowing us the space to sort out our banks, has now become a debt-sentence — and it didn’t have to be like this.
This latest addition is insane.
Not so long ago a government minister accused me of suggesting that the government’s behaviour was treason. Maybe her description is now accurate. To go along with an EU-devised scheme to foist the debt of the trading book of Anglo on the people is treasonous.
To do it now, when they are in their last days in power and with a poll support rate of just above 10pc is pathetic.
Whatever new government comes in should rip up this deal because, the second part of the sentence from the commission is even more infuriating. It is talking about keeping Anglo going as ‘a going concern’. Do these people have any grasp of reality at all? Anglo only opens its doors in the morning because of the billions of taxpayers’ money pumped into it.
To call it ‘a going concern’ is a complete mis-statement of facts.
The problem for Ireland, caused by the moral bankruptcy of the insiders, is that very soon, our country may no longer be able to continue as ‘a going concern’.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1259033066/first-interactive-book-no-more-national-debt
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Maybe Ireland could sell itself to Russia. They would like an outpost in Western Europe.
It might be a bit offensive, considering Ireland’s sad state, to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from the US, so instead I will wish everyone a blessed Christmas.
Nothing shocks me anymore concerning the practice of “business” in this country. At the very core of “business” in Ireland, we have Irish Company Law. If anything needs reforming in this country it is business law. Currently business law is a spagetti junction that favours those with the most expenive lawyers, and the expense of the population as a whole. Any chance that we might have a “plain common sense” legal code concerning business ? So as to put an end to this nonsense of developers owning 200 companies. Or even politicians have 200 different bank accounts (Lord Lucan). I… Read more »
The IMF/ECB bailout was nothing but a bailout for the banks. NAMA ia a bailout for the banks, but has clearly failed, -> the IMF/ECB signal above. The whole episode is an episode in moral turpitude. Tricky Trichet’s umbrage at Lenny’s collaborator act of financial fascism according himself dictator status in dealing with the banks clearly shows ‘Tricky’s only concern for Ireland is that Ireland has money to back back German/French bondholders. He’s worried bondholders won’t get first bite of the Pension Reserve and NTMA remains, that Lenny might burn him! McUseless in a revealing act of moral turpitude has… Read more »
And If I may use a bit of salt from the hard pressed local authorities here in Ireland who should have ordered more salt when they knew that this latest spell was coming to rub ito the wounds. Today Bank Of Ireland will increase its fees for current accounts to 28c per transaction unless you do 9 transactions in a 3 month period and have 1000 euros a month going into the account every month. or have a outstanding Balace of 3000 € in the account and according to other reports the other Banks will do likewise in the near… Read more »
To understand the grip that moneyed interests have on Irish society, just look at the laws that are enacted, and what they facilitate.
Most of the lawmaking in the last fifteen years has been designed so as to find better things to do than make bad businesses liable for their misbehaviours. And then when disaster strikes, we get demands for Keynesian stimulus packages/bailouts to provide a lifeline to failing businesses.
Well done David. Fianna Fail are the party who arrogantly strutted around claiming the high moral ground of Irish nationalism and a lineage from Celtic times. There are now exposed as a bunch of inept chancers, spoofers and traitors to Ireland who will sell the whole country down the river to save their friends who provided the backhanders, brown envelopes and personal bailouts. Have they no knowledge of history. It is a repeat of 150 years ago. Fianna Fail have replaced the British Establishment, the property developers have taken the place of the Landlords and the rest of us are… Read more »
I still don’t see what the systemic importance the Bank of Fingers has to the rest of the Irish economy.
Capitalist consequences for capitalist failure. Flush INBS. Euro-capitalism, a socialist bailout for every failed bank is nonsense. The political state is too powerful, when it gets to the point that it is answerable to anybody to the detriment of everybody. And this is where the EU is heading.
The whole public service in Eire is run on cronyism, folk get appointed over others to job before they have the professional qualifications or have completed their training because of who they know or what theiir dad did, or who they were. In the H.S.E they are giving voluntary severence to all the competent ones and we’re left with the epidemiological dross/gombeenites, like they found the emigration of the fittest in Roscommon in the 50’s-70’s and the residual population had one of the highest rates of schizophrenia in the world. As FF say in the new New Irish language strategy… Read more »
It is insane. Clinically so. Ireland and her people need group therapy and fast. Without looking at the psychology, the intergenerational patterns of abuse and their effects, without understanding how the abused ‘adapt’ to a situation where abuse is constant, no future Irish Government will do any better. They say that psychosis is the breakdown in the struggle between self-healing (which is a natural phenomenom) and denial (which is the often first response to an atrocity, but if it remains becomes part of the problem) that precedes breakthrough IF the appropriate support is available. “THE ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is… Read more »
The year finishes with one of your strongest articles.
Once again we see people on both sides of the deal, how can they lose? While the ‘outsiders’ as you term them aren’t anywhere to be seen when there is money to be made, but as we look at our pay cheques we see the money deducted to pay for these criminals, while judging by the Prime Time programme, the massive financial changes in Ireland has done little to alter the profligate ways of others.
David said:” Moral bankruptcy is not something that can be measured by an accountant…. It can be measured by holding a mirror up to the actions of the people who caused the financial crisis and asking two simple questions. Is this right? And – is this fair?”
Och sure, David, ’twas always so. … KJV informs us that it IS fair:
“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth snow on the just and on the unjust.”
Merry Christmas.
David, that is an excellent article. It sounds as angry as we all feel.
Do you know I think you personally are influencing the citizens of this country. Having an article in both the Indo and the Business Post you are getting to two seperate groups of people and thereby addressing well over half the population. It’s sort of like Monster Rallies. You could be the one to get us Monetary Emancipation.
David. To read the articles review on NAMA is blood boiling. To read ’bout ANGLOs off balance sheet codology is putting me into a form of self combustion. Coupla things. First NAMA is not a failure as such but moreso a fantastic success. The fact NAMA made it into reality is a success of immensity for the *professional insiders*. NAMA was a test of credulity on the nation. NAMA was an experiment in social engineering. NAMA represented for the insider elites and politicos a giant leap forward for how far the controllers of society could go in order to use… Read more »
via Constantin Gurdgiev
http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6BK54U20101221?ca=rdt
Little to say save we now must get used to being on the treadmill of debt slavery. There are an elite in Ireland who will not have to bear the penury consequences of an inept govternment. Actually it may be more apt to aver to the tragic fact that those in power conspired to enslave the ordinary citizen on this debt treadmill whilst they avoid the penal cost consequences of the debt treadmill.
Dear Adamabyss,
Regarding gambling legislation, you are an expert on this industry. Michael Lowry is planning a casino in Tipperary. It sounds awful to me but Native Americans make great money from casinos. It sounds like another license to print money for ML and his friends. I think we should be taxing winnings above E1000 or some such figure. And earnings too.
What can you tell us about the industry? Hillarious isn’t it? I’m asking you about an industry we’ve all been talking about for the last 2 years on this site!
According to FF Senator Brian O’Donnell’s views on trying to increase the amount of people who can speak Irish from 83,000 in 2010 to 250,000 by 2030 has all the trappings of a new police force being formed who’s uniforms would most likely be dark green in colour, crossed by Sam Browne Belts and Conradh na Gaelge armbands!!! Eine Volk! Eine Reich! Eine Fuhrer!
Shades of Nazi Germany, circa 1933 to 1945!
What a complete and utter arse hole!!!!
Hi Suds, sucks or whatever it is the fuck you call yourself. It’s me again. Oh deary me another spectacular G-Sucks success story. http://www.hedgefundsreview.com/hedge-funds-review/news/1732150/fsa-fines-goldman-sachs-gbp175-million-abacus-investigation Oompa lompa oompty doo, G-Sucks yet again in the Doo Doo, Oompa lompa oompty dee, A bonus all around with company fees! Anyone here on this blog see a pattern when taken in context with the ever increasing desperation of David’s articles? When you read articles like and the one David just posted about the absence of morality and witness examples of such as described in the above link it must be obvious to all of… Read more »
Most people here see whats going on…… but the problem is that 90%+ of the population are ‘zombies’ for all intents and purposes and don’t really get it….. they are obsessed with their soccer(m), soaps(f) and X Factor(unisex). They are but voting fodder for those who have the money to pump out the propoganda at election time….. eg it is expected that FF will win over 40 seats. So the problem is…. How do the people who are aware of the scams, corruption etc and who have an interest in the common good get it across to that big majority… Read more »
What you are dealing with here is your basic primate..Neanderthal Gombeenicus.
Now I have worked with these before.
A few tip’s:
(1) Clean out earwax, to allow for reception of new ideology.
(2) Bring to spec-savers, or they will continue to crash into trees.
(3) Speak in short sentences.
(4) Use limited vocabulary to avoid confusion.
(5) Ask questions like “do you need a medical card”, “did you get your grant”
I am writing a new book on the subject , it is called “FF the missing link”
[…] See the article here: Last-gasp steep is today a debt declare for us every | king McWilliams […]
The fate of wise men who refuse to be involved in politics is to be ruled by unwise men. Something like that. Merry Christmas and have a safe new year! I have run my entire house on 80% wood,10% coal and 10% electricity for heating and hot water for the past two months! The experiment with the new back boiler is working! No oil since May as the solar panels did most of the work this summer! They arent getting a look in in the past 2 months however, too little sun and too f,kn cold! Santa is on his… Read more »
Do we the people have any grasp of reality at all?
NAMA
IMF Sellout
Political Corruption
General Election
Social Anger Unleashed
Further Financial Collapse
We All Saw It Coming BUT We Still Brought It
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czvxyDgqxmM&feature=player_embedded#!
The future of ocean wave energy in Ireland now depends on getting EU funding for a joint project in the new year. This is the last chance to develop the technology in Ireland before it goes overseas. There wont be an industy here in the very near future. There is a modest budget – definitely below the 26 million earmarked by the government renewable energy development plan. Instead Ireland is paying 2 billion for NAMA fees. The mind boggles.
Why oh why do government after government and certain people who might be described as being members of ‘The Hierarchy'(those people who think they run the country on behalf of the Irish people) keep on paying lip service to the Irish Language? The majority of the population don’t speak it or can’t speak it, so, what’s the big deal about it??? If people were interested in speaking the language they’d go away and learn it, (that is of course provided they wanted to go away and learn it in the first place). The majority of the population don’t live in… Read more »
Is this money that AIB was given today really a bond in exchange for shares? No actual cash (because there is none) handed over? Can AIB then exchange this bond with the ECB for hard cash and then we owe the ECB the money? If so it sounds like ‘factoring’, a debt being passed to somebody else and we can do nothing. In a year we will be like Davey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsHWZHaqe1Y
GREEN PARTY “SUCCESS”
GREEN PARTY + AIB = ECONOCIDE = ZERO CARBON EMISSIONS
Why is nobody listening, and everybody just talking
Well look what Santy has brought the Irish people as a Christmas present …
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/aib-nationalised-with-euro37bn-injection-of-taxpayers-money-2472618.html
Or maybe that is Santy coming to the AIB bosses…..
All that is missing now is for McUseless to come on TV and to tell us that we should celebrate and feel proud.
AIB s xmas present a whopping 3.7 billion euros in ready made cash direct from NPRF.
Banks come first economy comes second.
Good evening,
as long as we do not acknowledge the direct links between economical decisions and warfare waged on Nations, we are looking at the world with one eye closed.
THE WAR YOU DON’T SEE is John Pilger’s latest work which I found as a 7 part series on you tube.
Highly recommended!
Best
Georg
Woohoo, look at David try to be the revolutionary. Commendable, but useless. Until David and the rest of you here start doing something, then the country is destined for disaster. Now, you can talk away to eachother but it will achieve nothing. I have been reading this for years and you have done nothing. Now is your chance. How many of you will do something in the next election? None is the answer. Less talk and more action. The people talking here could bring this country out of recession. Gege, George etc. What are you going to do apart from… Read more »
Another excellent article. Thanks David. All I can add is that during the 80’s, after I moved to Dublin to find work (Yes – I was a Culchie living amongst the Jackeen’s), as young as I was I knew something stank really, really badly in Ireland. As a single man in those dark days, I was being taxed to the absolute possible. This was during the days when Haughey was telling us that we all had to tighten our belts while having Charvet hand-made shirts flown in from Paris. I resolved to escape the thieving, parasitic state that is Ireland… Read more »
Happy Christmas David, your articles make me believe I’ve not gone mad. Thank you. And a Happy Christmas to all the Posters here, thanks for sharing all your experiences and insights which I surely benefit from hearing about. I wish everyone a Prosperous 2011. I actually think Ireland’s economy will further deteriorate but everyone has to stay strong, especially the unemployed, the sick, and those who feel they have no hope for a better future. Don’t let the insiders get you down. Ignore the RTE Pravda “I’m an adult get me outta here” consensus. Broaden your horizons. Inform yourself, challenge… Read more »
“The Secret Of Oz”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U71-KsDArFM
“The War You Don’t See” by John Pilger I managed to catch on TV recently is a documentary you must see, watch out for reshowings or catch extracts on youtube or here: http://pkpolitics.com/2010/12/21/the-war-you-dont-see-on-free-media/ Here you see the power of propaganda, manipulation of the media, which define the terms ‘nobody’ and ‘everybody’. So, ‘everybody’ gets blasted with propaganda, every effort is made to ensure ‘nobody’ gets the truth. In a local parallel to Pilger’s examples of truth manipulation, Lenny Wrong on radio during the week stated how his government had unequivocal international support for its response to the banking promise. S&P,… Read more »
Joke: Do you know what would have happened if it had been 3 wise women instead of 3 wise men who came upon the nativity? They would have asked for directions, arrived on time, delivered the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, brought practical baby gifts, and there would have been peace on earth, pass on to two wise women you know :-)
If only women had been in charge of the banks, the government, NAMA, ECB, German & British banks………..
Happy holidays to one and all, lets hope 2011 brings us the change we need and want.
Christmas Day should be a positive day for everyone, a time of reflection and looking forward. I’m beginning to agree with others on the site that we’ve done enough reflection. Its time to do something. Its Time To Get Our Money Back. So, here’s a few suggestions I’ll lend my name to for 2011. How’s about a new political party, the RIP (Reform Ireland Party). It doesn’t have to be successful, merely brought to birth? When the election takes place, how about a silent group march handing out posters around Lenny’s constituency, with placards asking for our money back, what… Read more »
The following was entered by me on the 12th October 2010 on this blogg : Avoid False Ratings Prophets : This is the above heading of this article .Trying not to be false about what lies ahead before the Christmas Pudding .Our energies will need to be more focussed on whether we can roast our goose this year and eat it cooked .The week before Xmas day is foreboding a ‘frustration of energy ‘ all around us .This is serious especially because of the seasonal time of the year it happens to be and the damage it can cause easily.It… Read more »
Question: As we went through the education system, how often did we here anything about Sovereignty. I recall hearing nothing about Sovereignty in the history class or indeed any other class…
Ireland has the highest breast cancer mortality rate in Europe! Why the Hell would the Irish Independent think it to be of public interest to learn about Mr. Lenihan’s personal state of health? I give a flying Bull whether he has eyeball cancer or earlobe aids, really! What concerns is his unjustifiable decision to bailout Anglo Irish Bank and his lack of opening the doors to all affairs concerning Anglo Irish Bank. Of the 32% deficit in Ireland, 20% accounts for Anglo Irish Bank alone. May be someone cares to explain THIS instead of writing about the finance Ministers personal… Read more »
Malcolm good read on post up there on *sovereign money*.
On the rest of it I reckon a distillation of the system into its real truth and then moving ahead of the curve on the insiders narrative is the way to go.
Did you see the film on TV over Christmas ‘Counterfeit’ ……..anyway to obtain the exact quality of the paper notes of the Sovereign Pound during WW2 professional Jewish prisoners discovered that the currency paper was made from rags .
I think we have a situation today of ‘rags to riches ‘ for EU Banks with the help from manipulative Lenihan.
We have moved from the film ‘ Greyzone ‘ to ‘ Counterfeit’ all under the baton of Lenihan
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2332720,00.html
Taxes for the good of the Irish people, not one cent in tribute to the banks.
Check out Sovereign Trust http://www.sovereigntrust.info/