But — whisper it quietly — it is not really all that important.

We are, after all, talking about alleged breaches of company law; normally a subject on which it would be impossible to excite any public interest at all.”
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/raid-may-be-interesting-but-its-not-that-important-1651857.html

This investigation is wearing the green jersey. FF were under pressure and so concocted the line that our banking collapse was due to secret criminal activities. But in fact the key things, probably everything, that Anglo did officials and politicians were aware of. And there is no way officials and politicians will go to jail in this country whatever laws were broken. This is all stage managed for public consumption:
- The original raid was on the eve of the FF Ard-Fheis.
- The anniversary of this raid, and coverage about the lack of follow up, brought two arrests followed by swift releases.
- The continuing napalming of billions on Anglo generated more pressure. Hence the belated - but inexplicable - decision to look to the courts to raise privilege.
- The “strategy” of not talking to the senior bankers involved is part of it. It is designed to:
A. Make sure civil servants and politicians don’t take the fall, in so far as there is one, and the bankers do.
B. Make sure that the truth does not emerge for as long as possible.

After pinning it on the bankers FF blamed the regulators, then public servants, then they had Fitzpatrick arrested, now they’ll blame the regulators again.

The bubble told us our establishment was deeply tarnished. But the cover ups and the sham investigation with its theatre and concealment have totally blackened it.

You must be thriled that former FF senator & practising solicitor Aidan Eames has been appointed to the Board of Anglo.

Good work. Keep diggin …………….

@Paul Quigley

Naw - neither a reel nor a waltz - checkin ooot the the cute-hoor-upper-echelon-two-steps man ………

The Irish could not handle it and neither could the British!

So they got together to share out the spoils……
The Alphas will rule, the Betas will manage and the rest will do as they are told. Consume, borrow, vote. Be content. Learn what we say is acceptable. If it means less waste like bubbles, real wars, etc then it may be the best we can get!

Senior Counsel Paul O’Higgins said the electronic material seized contained several million records and it was proving logistically difficult, if not impossible, to separate the legally privileged material without damaging the original data.

Mr O’Higgins said the Director of Corporate Enforcement, Paul Appleby, had asked the bank not to rely on legal professional privilege.

But he said when he (Appleby) was informed that the bank would be relying on privilege, he did not ask them why they would be doing this.”
????? Incredible. Appleby knew this was a state owned bank with state board appointees and he left it at that before eventually going to the courts??????
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0603/anglo.html
There is no credible reason for Appleby not to have gone straight to
A. The board of Anglo
B. And then to the Government
and asked them to withdraw this claim. There is NO rational reason for the courts to be involved. Why were Anglo management even making the claim of privilege? As the judge said:
“Mr Justice Peter Kelly said it was a curious state of affairs that the State-owned bank, was claiming privilege over material in relation to an investigation being carried out by an officer of the State.”
Here it is in brief:
The ILP deposits were part of an official cover up of the state of the banks.
There has been a cover up of this cover up ever since.
The investigation itself is a secrecy maintenance program The strategy of not even interviewing senior people is part of this.

We have an investigation that is a secrecy maintenance program.
Good God.

It’s part of the Eurozone’s new “know your (future) customer” rule.

During emergency discussions with the Government and senior regulatory officials, both banks consulted their treasury departments shortly after talks began late on Monday, September 29th.

Both heard from their treasury units within hours and determined that they each could provide €5 billion in loans to keep Anglo float…

AIB and BoI both sought assurances from the Government that night that the €10 billion would be repaid that Friday ahead of the Government’s expected nationalisation of Anglo.

The following day, neither bank was contacted by the Central Bank, the Financial Regulator or Anglo in relation to the loans of €10 billion, or received any explanation as to why the loans weren’t needed.

Following the Government’s announcement of the system-wide deposits and funding guarantee early on September 30th, deposits flooded into the Irish banks.

Five months later it also emerged that Irish Life Permanent (ILP) provided €3.45 billion in temporary loans to Anglo on the day of the guarantee – in addition to €4 billion loaned by ILP to Anglo earlier that week – and that the two had also supported each other with liquidity earlier that year. The €7.45 billion in loans are now being investigated by gardaí.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0405/1224267704808.html

Have the government been purporting to investigate ILP, while not doing so at all, for activities they later encouraged AIB and BOI to take part in? The conclusion must be that our establishment are as bad as Greece’s but unlike the Greeks we’re too dumb and too gullible to realise it. We’re in denial about an out of control official Ireland.

That’s a mighty reel but I think this is the waltz competition.

I think that much of the coverage of the Central Bank/Financial Regulator’s failings suffers from a fatal misunderstanding. They didn’t fail in their job as far as their political masters were concerned - they completely succeeded. Failure, in the eyes of the people who appointed them and kept them in office, would have been to interfere with the bankers/politicians/speculators. Their job titles should have been “Central Non-Banker” and “Financial Unregulator”. If say Neary had been a semi-failure we would have had half the bubble (at least until FF/PDs made him petting zoo regulator and replaced him with someone who didn’t regulate). We had the Japanese scale bubble we did because Neary and Hurley, as demanded by their political bosses, were total successes. Total failure for FF would have been to have had active regulation and no bubble whatsoever. The golden handshakes they got were because FF were fully aware they had just done their jobs. Not the job they had in legislation or by international standards but the job their employers wanted, which is the one which inevitably ends up being done.

Repeat after me: Neary and Hurley just did their real jobs.

EU vs Eurozone maybe? That’d explain why the UK wouldn’t have to play show and tell with the other kids…

“The budget will be presented to parliament first. There is no question of anyone other than MPs seeing it first,” said Mark Hoban, financial secretary to the UK Treasury”

I am very confused now, from where I sit nobody has agreed to anything of the sort.

Yes - been following this one. You are ‘on the ball’ - But, of course, Spectacles and the Board were kept in the ‘dark’ - as were, apparently, the Board of DDDA, ……… neat little trick to get the ‘Golden Circles’ off the hook - think we will accumulate a lot of this on various boards …. forgetting the basic tenet of corporate governance that the ‘buck’ stops with the board - not around here ………….

Yes - off-thread - excuse us mere serfs …………..

@Eoin

The Governor, apparently, does not hire ‘fools’ …..

Well, at least we can’t claim they didn’t get someone pretty decent to do our banking investigation…

Because that is all that has really been said as far as I can see, “strictly implement the surveillance framework by the SGP”.

Otherwise it has been a remarkable turn of face from where we were two weeks ago when the French, Irish, and even German opposition parties were dismissing without the question of European approval for budgets.

“THE FORMER chief executive of Irish Life & Permanent has questioned the role of the Department of Finance, Financial Regulator and Central Bank in the reporting of his company’s controversial €7.45 billion transaction with Anglo Irish Bank, which propped up the bank.

ILP’s deposits, which are now the subject of two official investigations, falsely [many are using another f word] bolstered the bank’s financial health in the run-up to its collapse.

In a surprise move, Denis Casey, who resigned as ILP chief executive in February 2009 over its financial support for Anglo, has in recent days submitted a sworn statement to investigators examining the deposits.

In his statement – seen by The Irish Times – Mr Casey said the department, the regulator and the Central Bank were aware of the transactions before Anglo published the financial results.

We are all aware there is a cover up in progress. But now to continue denying it would be laughable:
“Mr Casey said he was providing the statement as investigators have yet to contact him about the matter, despite the deposits being under investigation for 17 months.” !!!!!!!

So what will civil society do now it’s clear beyond any doubt that even our investigators are engaged in a secrecy maintenance operation?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0608/1224272055689.html
(Report by Simon Carswell & Stephen Collins).

It is also clear that the exhortations to wear the green jersey (over your head) date back to the bank guarantee. No wonder we’re in such a mess.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0608/1224272054487.html

Eh, whats the leverage ratio on that?? Makes NAMA look positively conservative in comparison…

Drat! No sign of those banking reports …

Tuesday, June 8, 2010 via NakedCapitalism
Satyajit Das: Even More Crunch-Porn and Crash Lit

But Satyajit Das in good form this morning …. cites P.J. (not Kevin; any relation?) O’Rourke who described economics as “an entire scientific discipline of not knowing what you’re talking about.” One can only quibble with the word “scientific”. & reviews all the recent ‘blockbusters’ ……..

Worth a good scan:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/06/satyajit-das-even-more-crunch-porn-and-crash-lit.html

Feeling better already …..

Angela and Niclas in a bit of a tiff …….. Systems of Money [Finance] and Power [EU politics] in shambolic health …………. EU citizens in their Lifewolds will suffer more …………. not a good day at EU level.

Germany [1/4 of EU economy] doin OK - for itself: other 3/4 austerity, austerity,austerity - the new Triple-A

Where are those banking reports - need something to cheer me up! … while the present Executive continue with its Resolution policy of winding down the entire Irish Economy & Society.

About time, too!

Special Purpose Vehicle
Euro area only of course. I do not know why they limited themselves to a specific sum. Maybe repetition was designed to impress?

Sounds from both documents, that all will be well. So a banking system may survive.

Sounds like Abracadabra! Great to see concern, now, for debt! Wouldn’t want to compromise recovery!

Oooops! Hints to the ECB about interest rate rises? But maybe by then they will have discovered that this “recession” is a depression. So, lots to look forward to!

No wonder the language is pusillanimous. The words are too ashamed to stay on the paper!