Upcoming Events

National | EU

no events match your query!

New Events

National

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Tue Dec 24, 2024 00:40 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Can Science Tell Us the Meaning of Life? Mon Dec 23, 2024 19:54 | Dr David Bell
At Christmas time, Dr David Bell reflects on what has true value in this world, the limits of science to tell us what that is and what a baby in a manger might have to say about it.
The post Can Science Tell Us the Meaning of Life? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Non-Crime Hate Incidents Surge in Half of Police Forces Despite Government Crackdown Mon Dec 23, 2024 17:46 | Will Jones
The number of?non-crime hate incidents?recorded by police has surged in half of Britain's forces despite attempts by the previous Government to crack down on the practice, official data show.
The post Non-Crime Hate Incidents Surge in Half of Police Forces Despite Government Crackdown appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Reeves?s Simplistic Thinking Spawned This Budget from Hell Mon Dec 23, 2024 15:44 | David Craig
Simplistic linear thinking by Rachel from Accounts and the Treasury spawned this Budget from hell, says David Craig. A systems thinker would have known it would send the economy into a doom loop of recession and decline.
The post Reeves’s Simplistic Thinking Spawned This Budget from Hell appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link British Drivers Steering Away From New Cars In Their Droves Mon Dec 23, 2024 13:00 | Sallust
British car-buyers are turning away from new vehicles in their droves and keeping their reliable old petrol models going for far longer as Labour's Net Zero war on affordable motors heats up.
The post British Drivers Steering Away From New Cars In Their Droves appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en

offsite link Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en

offsite link How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en

offsite link Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Promissory Notes: Negotiating or Play-Acting?

category national | eu | opinion/analysis author Wednesday April 04, 2012 18:51author by O.O´C. - People´s Movementauthor email post at people dot ieauthor address 25 Shanowen Crescent, Dublin 9author phone 087230830 Report this post to the editors

What other country in Europe is sticking 20 percent of its GDP on its national debt to support a completely bust bank? And how did we get into this position?

In a move clearly aimed at trying to upstage and divert attention from an extremely embarasing Sinn Féin private members’ motion on the ESM Treaty, the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, told the Dáil on 21 March that the Government is
“now negotiating with the EU authorities, and principaly with the ECB, on the basis that the €3.06 bilion cash instalment due from the Minister to IBRC [Irish Bank Resolution Corporation] on 31 March 2012 under the terms of the IBRC promisory note could be settled by the delivery of a long-term Irish government bond. The details of the arrangement have still to be worked out.”
www.DaveWalshPhoto.com
www.DaveWalshPhoto.com

What other country in Europe is sticking 20 percent of its GDP on its national debt to support a completely bust bank? And how did we get into this position?

The loan losses in the Irish banks following the financial collapse in 2008 were calculated in March 2011 at €75 billion. In the twelve months since then it has become increasingly apparent that mortgage loan losses will get progressively worse. Evidence is mounting that the total loan losses in Ireland could rise towards €10 billion.
The guarantee in September 2008 to six Irish financial institutions, and the subsequent €31 billion in IOUs given to Anglo-Irish Bank, were the starting-point on this road to modern financial servitude.

Anglo-Irish took these promissory notes, or IOUs, and lodged them with the Central Bank of Ireland. The Central Bank effectively created €31 billion, which was given to Anglo-Irish by a procces known as “exceptional liquidity assistance.”

The money given to Anglo-Irish was not borowed from the European Central Bank, nor was it created by the European Central Bank. It was created by the Central Bank of Ireland, as the creation of money is decentralised in the eurozone.

The Irish Nationwide Building Society later came into the scheme when, from 1 July 2011, its assets and liabilities were transfered to Anglo-Irish in a merger ordered by the courts that created the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.

So as a one-off, money was created and pumped into the Irish banks to keep them solvent. Normally when banks collapse, their investors do not get all their money back. After 2008, as payments to bond- holders fell due, neither the banks nor the state had the resources to pay them. That is where the ECB stepped in. It lent approximately €135 billion to Irish banks to enable them to repay the bond-holders, with interest, and also to replace lost deposits.

That repayment schedule for this ECB-dictated madness is punishing:

€3.1billion every year until 2023, with smaller annual outlays due until 2031.

€3.1 billion is about three times the size of Ireland’s austerity measures this year and represents about 2 percent of GDP. To do this it must borrow the money, and pay interest on it, raise taxes, and cut spending. This will destroy any hope of economic recovery.

The Government is afraid to rock the boat too vigorously in these negotiations, because of a belief that the billions of “unprecedented” lending to Irish banks will be placed at risk if the promissory notes are not repaid and that they cannot be reneged on, or indeed disowned by a country that has already shouldered such debt to bail out banks and non-Irish financial institutions.

The country is fighting for its very survival, and the Government needs to negotiate accordingly. The terms of the deal should have more to do with asserting national sovereign rights than trying to look good for the forthcoming referendum.

Related Link: http://www.IrishReferendum.Org
author by Tpublication date Wed Apr 04, 2012 23:41author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Over at Constantin Gurdgiev's blog he has analyzed what Noonan's latest deal on promissory notes for 3.1 billion euro has done and shows that it has no advantages and will actually cost more.

He outlines 16 points on it and in point 13 says:

The positive factor of so-called 'more flexible fiscal buffer' is a red herring, in my view. The idea is that we are 'saving' cash allocation of €3.06bn this year, making it 'available' for borrowing in 2013. This is rather stretching the reality - the 'cushion' has been pre-provided to us by the Troika deal and is specific to the Promissory Notes. There is no indication that it can be used for any other purposes. Even if it were to be used for any other purpose, it would be an addition to the bond issued, so our debt will increase by the amount we use from the 'cushion'. Furthermore, the deal runs out in 2013 and thereafter no 'cushion' is available. So on the net, we have just paid 400mln increase in debt, plus 90mln in deficit to buy ourselves an 'insurance' policy that should we need 3bn in 2013, we will be able to ask for it from the kindness of the EU and have it for no longer than a year. That's pretty damn expensive insurance policy.


You can find the full text at the link below.

Meanwhile as one commentator to his blog says about the deal:

Because of the general discontent around the household tax, and their impending ard fheis, Fine Gael had to be seen to produce a result for the people. The ECB refused to play ball so Noonan's very expensive fudge was cooked up.

It is astounding that the government are willing to accrue further debt, many multiples of the revenue they hope to get from the household tax, just to save face.

Related Link: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.com/2012/03/2932012-promissory-note-deal-2012.html
author by pd fanpublication date Thu Apr 05, 2012 10:58author address author phone Report this post to the editors

don't forget Tom Parlon.

par.jpg

author by Francis Xavier.publication date Thu Apr 05, 2012 11:27author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Noonan has compounded the problem by issuing a bond for €3.06bn. He has converted private debt to sovereign debt, thus taking it out of the frame for future negotiations. What a disaster and a scam of the highest order. The debt situation has actually been made worse, not better.
We are sinking more and more and it is crystal clear that DISASTER looms. There's a stockmarket bubble forming.
The BIG CRASH is 6 months away, at most!!!

author by O.O´C.publication date Thu Apr 05, 2012 19:47author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Please do also consider linking to and commenting on our site - we also have RSS feeds and email updates if you want to sign up for them on the site. All the best to you.

Related Link: http://www.IrishReferendum.Org
 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy