Ireland bail-out: British banks hit as Irish rescue falters

The Telegraph ^ | 11/23/2010 | By Robert Winnett, Bruno Waterfield and James Kirkup

[April Lexington]

It is hard to believe that Irish bankers could create that much bad paper...

[rahbert]

They lent to Italy and Greece.

[April Lexington]

Did they lend to Irish people who bought houses in Italy and Greece or did they lend to Italian and Greek home buyers?

[taxtruth]

This nothing more than another central bankers scam!

[bruinbirdman]

"It is hard to believe that Irish bankers could create that much bad paper..."

An up front commission with every loan every step of the way.

What's that, real estate agent and company, bank, secondary market, securitization, security sales, security/loan insurance. On a $250,000+ house X millions of them.

That is just the finance/real estate industry.

Countries all deficit spend. Every year they must sell trillions of debt. What happens when the bond market dries up, not just banks, countries?

Forced austerity? Only for countries that can't print money. Heck, the USA already needs to buy bonds from itself/The Fed.

In Ireland, they will have forced decreases in their SS/medicare equivalent. Forced reductions in their dole/welfare, etc.

The big picture goes way beyond fraudulent bankers going to jail or bankrupt banks.

yitbos

[TruthConquers]

“British banks have more than £140 billion in outstanding loans to Ireland.”

This has been and will continue to be, about bailing out banks that encouraged housing bubbles all over the world.

In this case, it is the BRITISH banks that need the bailout, and the Irish people who will be forced to pay to repair those banks insolvent balance sheets. Like this country is bailing out Goldman and JPM, and the rest of the country can go to, well, you know, hell.

The whole world will before this is over.

[Oldexpat]

Next year we get to see who is swimming naked in State and local bonds and loans in the US.
Sounds like Sen. Dodd maybe has lost money on his Irish house.

[NVDave]

Yup. And for that reason, we should hope that this attempt to prop up the Irish banks fails. The only way we get to the end of this is that bankers start taking losses - big losses - and central bankers start learning some humility.

[Humidston]

Tick, tick, tick....

[bruinbirdman]

"Yup. And for that reason, we should hope that this attempt to prop up the Irish banks fails. "

The Irish Green Party, a big part of Irish socialist deficit spending, has withdrawn support for the governing coalition (which nationalized the biggest and worst banks) and is forcing elections in January.

yitbos

[April Lexington]

Wow! So much for Irish independence and freedom. Barely 100 years and... poof! Owned by the Germans!

[NVDave]

I saw that. I don’t know if their political gambit will be enough to finally stop this charade of propping up stupidity at the banks.

Sooner or later, the Germans have to say “nicht mehr” and leave the French and Brits on the hook for their own cupidity.

[April Lexington]

Why in heck would the Irish or Swiss or US government care if banks collapsed? Wouldn't Japanese banks and Chinese banks just step in on Monday morning to clean up the mess? Why burden the tax payers?

[April Lexington]

Ja, oder kein mehr!

[April Lexington]

These governments don't have the kugels to cut spending to match tax revenues. They set the tax rates and then spend whatever they want to spend by borrowing the balance. The average tax payer is clueless as to how much the debt service costs. Thus, the tax payer gets the public benefit without realizing the cost. Unfortunately, the national credit cards are about maxed out!

[Talf]

perhaps Ireland
can be profitably
converted into an amusement park.

[bruinbirdman]

"They set the tax rates and then spend whatever they want to spend by borrowing the balance."

Well, we are going to see Brussels/Deutschland run Ireland's budget. In any case, during the upcoming depression, Ireland won't have the revenues and won't be able to print/borrow money to cover their deficit.

I hear Grease is selling islands to hit wealth distribution targets.

yitbos

[April Lexington]

If you do the math, you see that the Irish are now serfs of the Germans. They will spend generations paying off this loan... So much for the freedom thing...

[Lazlo in PA]

I don't know how they hope to repay this loan. My research shows that this is their only export.