“I think it is obviously true that one has to try and deal with some of the narrative that has been allowed to be formed which i think doesn’t reflect a comprehensive or balanced commentary of where we are at,” said Mr Cowen.

“Really implicit in some of the argumentation is the idea that it would be better for Ireland to default. But we simply don’t accept that at all and I think all of the implications from other countries where that happens greatly undermines, not just in terms of financial credibility but also the ability to retain confidence at home,” he added.

Which MK article did Brian Cowen read?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0526/breaking25.html

So maybe after the next election? Or the one after that?

- Bill seems to belong to the more old-fashioned (Austrian?) school who believes that the pain we are suffering is part of the solution and not the problem - see also Peter Schiff on this. If we keep trying to fix things through government bailouts , all we are doing is adding our problems of today on to the next generation, who will have their own problems. It is not so much a “kick the can down the road”, than a “roll the snowball down the road” because of the cumulative effect.
Now the snowball has just got too big to push any further, and bank debt has been converted to sovereign debt, and the government kitties are already raided.
The collapse of the banking system here may or may not have happened without the guarantee - but it would have been a short sharp shock compared with what lies ahead.

Bill Bonner is a shrewdie. But he also sells real estate in Panama etc. He saw it all coming, as did others. There is no need to pay for advice, but it takes tine to figure out who the good guys are.

Ronan Duffy
Welcome to the madhouse…
How would it affect your business plans if you were told and believed that this was a depression and not a recession, acknowledged by all as the worst since WW2 or by others since the Great Depression?

Congrats on your bravery in using your own name. I trend to be snippier with those who do not. Take care of your capital!

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication15951_en.pdf

It outlines the extent of public intervention of the banking sector as a percent of GDP for each member state. When looked at comparatively, Irelands bailout is massive - 231.8 percent. The Euro area average is 25.4 percent.

Euro-area public interventions in the banking sector (as % of GDP) – approved

* Austria 32.0
* Belgium 92.0
* Cyprus 0.0
* Finland 27.7
* France 18.1
* Germany 24.4
* Greece 11.4
* Ireland 231.8
* Italy 1.3
* Lux 20.2
* Malta 0.0
* Netherlands 52.0
* Portugal 12.5
* Slovakia 0.0
* Slovenia 32.8
* Spain 12.1
* Euro area 25.4
* EU 27 31.2

Do we have to watch as matters get much worse? FG seems to be asleep, wanting to gain through FF implosion. Perhaps they are right? The policy vaccuum is partly down to the opposition in the Dail.

MK is correct. It could. But the government is committed to a low tax regime. So they will shoot at the messsenger, as hard as they can. They still do not want to recognize what he has cogently, and many posters on this wonderful site too, said.

That is extreme extend and pretend and suggests a log jam of massive proportions in fiscal policy that will cause what MK warns of!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127085104

The lack of credibility is hardly surprising. Unsustainable debts are ‘remedied’ by guarantees for the creditors, Europe’s banks, by increasing the sovereign’s debt and preventing it from increasing the revenue streams that might help service it.

It’s past time that the creditors took their medicine. The existence of the guarantee, and its imminent expiry can be used at adomestic and European level to administer it. 25 cents on the Euro might be enough.

Is she the one who gives out the leaflets about how bankers are running the world and we are all just little debt slaves?

I am certain Ireland is less corrupt. But a similar situation could arise were a Madoff character to be found lurking within the IFSC. But we know it is so well run, that could never happen ……..

By the way, anyone ever met the “Irish nun” called Sorcha Faal? She and her sisters have a hot line to Russia and according to one commentator, is a USN Intelligence Captain ………

All’s I know’s is I didnt get paid nothing!!!

@ http://market-ticker.denninger.net/ (second from top)

B Peter.

Pat,

What struck me earlier reading this is the criticism again of the Germans and the personal comment about Commissioner Olli Rehn.

The cheek of them to intrude in our affairs.

We are due the money; after all we converted those barbarians to Christianity!

<i<Last week Olli Rehn, the EU’s monetary affairs commissioner, said he was “examining whether Dublin should adopt new austerity measures and will conclude my review within three weeks”. Rehn is an EU insider. A chronic student whose formal education concluded 14 years ago at age 34, he served briefly in the Finnish parliament in the early 1990s. Since then he has been an unelected EU functionary.

Rehn got a PhD from Oxford University in 1996, which makes him look a plonker compared with the best and brightest in the Oireachtas.

He had in fact various jobs before 1996 including as a newspaper columnist — maybe Kiberd does not regard that as a real job.

As for being an unelected EU functionary, maybe we would get betetr policymaking by for example electing central bankers.

Has DK been reading this blog?

It is possible that the INBS may be entitled to this quarter share if there was use of it;s funds or if there has been a breach of good faith owed by a director, based on an undisclosed conflict of interests?

The files have apparently disappeared, so it is now safe to investigate! CORRUPTION like this will certainly help foreigners to trust Ireland Inc!

Perhaps we can take advantage of the occasion to revamp the Green Jersey? In Australia we call it a Guernsey. Our national colours are Green and Gold. The National flower is the Wattle which has fragrant golden blossom and pumps nitrogen into the soil, enabling many other flora to grow.

Start up an enterprize looking for minerals? Sampling streams would be a start. We use termite mounds here among other methods.

i got ya dude, dont worry…and for the purposes of disclosure, i am an proud green jersey wearer. Not everything is as crystal clear-cut as Morgan suggests, and explaining the postives of the Irish economic story is not as pointless as Kevin D would make out. Green jersey wearers are not simply dissembling the facts on the ground, and to suggest such is unfair and incorrect.

It’s clear that German politicians are sick of the peripheral eurozone states that, due to greed, recklessness, corruption and sheer ignorance, have caused so much trouble. The German public, I suspect, holds stronger views, and would see printing of money to bail out the miscreants as unacceptable. Support for right-wing anti-euro politicians would increase and Germany’s politicians would be unable to hold their current position. Then, the agreed 750bn bailout pot that I’m sure our government is taking a keen interest in, would surely be in jeopardy!