That’s how Buttonwood describes the relationship between the banks and government in Britain and America in his/her latest column in The Economist.
The piece goes on to predict:
. . . this leads to an odd symbiotic relationship in which governments have stepped in to rescue the banks, only for the banks in turn to finance the government. In the long run the danger is that this cosy relationship means lending is diverted away from productive private-sector projects and into government spending. Economic growth will be slower as a result.
It seems very relevant to the debate on the Irish banking crisis.
6 replies on ““Like two drunks leaning against each other to stay upright . . .””
The bubbles are now being blown by governments and their international creatures the IMF etc.
Like an Anaconda. They will expand only so as to better tighten their grip. Then they will constrict. Sheep are so tasty! Governments have been corrupted. So what else is not new?
A pint ‘o plain is your only man.
Japanese banks buying almost 60% of all Japanese Bonds certainly rings a few alarm bells, particularly as we have no control over our own currency.
“lending is diverted away from productive private-sector projects and into government spending. Economic growth will be slower as a result.”
This is the entire 20th century in a nutshell.
The State has failed the people, disgraced themselves and bankrupted large portions of the country. NAMA represents political failure and our Oireachtas this week will deliver that failure.
Meanwhile;
Where is the 71 billions gone? Bad Luck?
Why must we borrow 2 billions every month? More Bad Luck?
Why is the government intent on putting 54 billions into NAMA, more bad luck?
This state is not a functioning democracy. It has, since the famous Lynch budget of 1977 shown itself to be a dysfunctional immature country, content to lurch from crisis to crisis. Winning elections with auction politics.
Consequently, we have elected, not one, but a string of sub standard leaders who have presided over the long slow, but now spectacular, headlong fall into debt bondage and economic failure. Shortly, social unrest too.
And it seems, that we the electorate are doomed to elect another hopeless leader enxt time round because there won’t be anyone on our voting papers to break the mediocracy. FFFGLABSF take your pick. We need to start planning for the next general election, it needs to be different from any previous election. I dread to think, what will happen to this country if these parties think it is simply business as usual.
Our crises is threefold moral, political, economic. We should arrest the people who brought us here, stop borrowing a billion every fortnight. Recognise that spectacularly overpaying ourselves with borrowed money is the politics of madness, failure and denial.
State workers or their unions should not be allowed to buy out shares in state utility companies which they are supposed to be operating on behalf of the state. The ESB workers and their unions should not end up end up controlling the energy sector of the country via a vie a utility company for which they work and for which they are handsomely paid to operate. This has led to gross inefficiencies and prices in the energy sector which is pulling down all businesses and households. The alternate energy players cannot even get connected to “their” grid. Next, it will be their water, their roads etc. In Dublin it is already DCC’s city not ours, they own the roads that connect the suburbs to the city and if you want to go to the city then you must pay their extortionate parking rates.
Life long jobs in communist countries also led to spectacular failure. Permanent jobs, huge salaries and state pensions, quango’s, gross inefficiencies must become a thing of the past, and most certainly will as we sink in a sea of debt.
Do we as a people really believe that there is a future in selling our selves and our children into debt bondage or are we just beyond caring any longer? We need a new constitution. Our judiciary seem happy, like everybody else to operate systems, in this case law, that creak and strain towards breaking point. This approach has all but buried democracy in Ireland. Our politicians ignore reality and dire warnings, something has got to give and it will.
At the moment, our government are running up national debt like there is no tomorrow, just to stay in power. The system is smashed and the Greens delude themselves into thinking that if they print out another program everything will be o.k. How long can we keep reality at bay with this ignorant strategy? Answer, as long as we are allowed stack pile our debt. Meanwhile, there is no money for the smart economy, for the green economy or for the real economy, because politicians have spent it all on staying in power which is a thing called NAMA. The real cost of this will be mass unemployment, emigration, run down hospitals, poor schools, urban and rural decay, high crime and a stagnated broken economy.
The State has failed the people, disgraced themselves and bankrupted large portions of the country. NAMA represents political failure and our Oireachtas this week will deliver that failure.
Meanwhile;
Where is the 71 billions gone? Bad Luck?
Why must we borrow 2 billions every month? More Bad Luck?
Why is the government intent on putting 54 billions into NAMA, more bad luck?
This state is not a functioning democracy. It has, since the famous Lynch budget of 1977 shown itself to be a dysfunctional immature country, content to lurch from crisis to crisis. Winning elections with auction politics.
Consequently, we have elected, not one, but a string of sub standard leaders who have presided over the long slow, but now spectacular, headlong fall into debt bondage and economic failure. Shortly, social unrest too.
And it seems, that we the electorate are doomed to elect another hopeless leader next time round because there won’t be anyone on our voting papers to break the mediocracy. FFFGLABSF take your pick. We need to start planning for the next general election, it needs to be different from any previous election. I dread to think, what will happen to this country if these parties think it is simply business as usual.
Our crises is threefold moral, political, economic. We should arrest the people who brought us here, stop borrowing a billion every fortnight. Recognise that spectacularly overpaying ourselves with borrowed money is the politics of madness, failure and denial.
State workers or their unions should not be allowed to buy out shares in state utility companies which they are supposed to be operating on behalf of the state. The ESB workers and their unions should not end up end up controlling the energy sector of the country via a vie a utility company for which they work and for which they are handsomely paid to operate. This has led to gross inefficiencies and prices in the energy sector which is pulling down all businesses and households. The alternate energy players cannot even get connected to “their” grid. Next, it will be their water, their roads etc. In Dublin it is already DCC’s city not ours, they own the roads that connect the suburbs to the city and if you want to go to the city then you must pay their extortionate parking rates.
Life long jobs in communist countries also led to spectacular failure. Permanent jobs, huge salaries and state pensions, quango’s, gross inefficiencies must become a thing of the past, and most certainly will as we sink in a sea of debt.
Do we as a people really believe that there is a future in selling our selves and our children into debt bondage or are we just beyond caring any longer? We need a new constitution. Our judiciary seem happy, like everybody else to operate systems, in this case law, that creak and strain towards breaking point. This approach has all but buried democracy in Ireland. Our politicians ignore reality and dire warnings, something has got to give and it will.
At the moment, our government are running up national debt like there is no tomorrow, just to stay in power. The system is smashed and the Greens delude themselves into thinking that if they print out another program everything will be o.k. How long can we keep reality at bay with this ignorant strategy? Answer, as long as we are allowed stack pile our debt. Meanwhile, there is no money for the smart economy, for the green economy or for the real economy, because politicians have spent it all on staying in power which is a thing called NAMA. The real cost of this will be mass unemployment, emigration, run down hospitals, poor schools, urban and rural decay, high crime and a stagnated broken economy.