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Are Irish Taxpayers About To Bail Out Goldman? Is Peter Sutherland Stealing From His Own People To Give To The Vampire Squid?
It is deja vu all over again. To little media fanfare the dire financial situation in Ireland is nothing less than a repeat of the Lehman collapse in those dark days of September 2008. With the recent nationalization of half of the country's six big banks, and the blanket guarantee over the rest of them, the Irish government has effectively made sure that bondholders in all banks, even those which such as long insolvent Anglo Irish bank will be made whole by the long-suffering Irish taxpayers. And despite rumors of haircuts for at least sub debtholders, actual facts validating this possibility remain unseen. Which begs the question why is everyone in the world so terrified of taking mark to market losses on even a few billion in debt? Simple: as all of the world's banks, but Europe more so than anyone else, are now caught in the biggest circle jerk ever imaginable, with one entity's liabilities making up another's assets, which in turn are someone else's liabilities, and so forth in a MC Escher (or is that HR Giger?)-esque flow chart of the surreal (as can be seen here), even one dollar of write downs can spiral and affect tens if not hundreds of billions of downstream assets (and thus liabilities). Which explains why the ECB and everyone else in Europe is so intent on preventing a failed auction in Ireland (we previously disclosed that virtually every September auction of Irish bonds was purchased by the ECB, either directly and indirectly): should the banks that are on the hook actually validate their impairment, Europe is one step away from activating its own $1 trillion TARP package. Yet what is amusing is that inbetween the cracks of exclusively European-bank based senior and subordinated bondholders in such bankrupt banks as Anglo-Irish, a familiar name emerges: Goldman Sachs.
Yes, nested quietly inbetween the €4,034,756,880 in face value of Anglo Irish bondholders is the name that managed to pull the strings (via its puppet Hank Paulson) and get bailed out when AIG threatened to make Goldman management and investors insolvent. Is Goldman, via its UK-based Goldman Sachs Asset Management Intl. subsidiary, currently petitioning Brian Lenihan to be the only US-based bank to receive a direct bailout on its Anglo bond position? Or is it, as always behind the scenes, negotiating on behalf of 80 other European banks, among which Lombard Odier, Rothschild, and Deutsche, and achieve what it always succeeds in: escaping scott free, and stuffing taxpayers with the bill? We are confident Irish taxpayers, and drivers of cement trucks, would be fascinated in getting the correct answer.
Guido Fawkes, who managed to obtain the Anglo Irish bondholder list, shares the following commentary:
Anglo-Irish Bank did not represent a systemic risk to the Irish economy, it wasn’t a high street bank like AIB or the Bank of Ireland. If it had been allowed to go the way of Lehmans the only losers would have been shareholders and bondholders. The Irish state stepped in and nationalised a bank that was basically run by crooks lending to property speculators. The Irish people are taking losses that should rightly have been shouldered by bondholders.
Every child in Ireland is being bequeathed a huge debt at birth to protect the interests of foreign, mainly German, bondholders – why? Guido was once a bond trader, it was always understood that sometimes the bond issuer defaults. That is the risk investors take.
So why is Dublin’s political establishment so keen to protect foreign investors at the expense of future generations? Guido has obtained the list of foreign Anglo-Irish bondholders as at the close of business tonight. These are the people whom Dublin’s politicians really seem to care about.
Between them they hold Anglo-Irish bonds with a face-value of €4,034,756,880. Shouldn’t they take the hit rather than future generations of Irish taxpayers? Capitalism is a system of profit and loss, they took the risk of investing in Anglo-Irish Bank. Is the Irish government under pressure from the European Central Bank in Frankfurt to protect German investors?
Spot on question. And as the highlighted area in the chart below demonstrates, we would like to add Goldman Sachs to the list of bailoutees. Surely, few firms in the world deserve to be redeemed as much as god's little helpers.
Little else that can be added here... except for this amusing anecdote of another Goldman Sachs International Chairman, one Peter Sutherland, former Ireland attorney general and EU commissioner who just so happens was a chairman of British Petroleum (remember those guys?) previously. To wit from the Irish Times:
[Sutherland] and [recently heckled] Lenihan have remained in contact through the financial crisis. On one occasion, Sutherland visited Lenihan to tell him what a great job he thought he was doing and to say that Lenihan had the potential to be one of the great taoisigh of the 21st century. Lenihan was taken aback, he says.
Surely, this great son of Ireland, who obviously has Lenihan in his back pocket, is in active negotiation on behalf of his current employer, Goldman Sachs. Yet something tells us Mr. Sutherland will be the last person to share light on Goldman's twilight relationship vis-a-vis the Irish government.
One look-back Sutherland opposes is the banking inquiry. This is hardly surprising from a former chairman of AIB who appeared at the 1999 public inquiry into the Dirt tax evasion scandal.
“It would have been better not to have an inquiry at this time because we have limited resources and a diversion of those limited human resources into an ex post facto analysis of the past is far less important than remedying the immediate problem that we have now,” he says.
“It is a very difficult subject and to have all of these civil servants sitting in listening to bloody evidence on the past when they all know broadly what happened. We know what happened – we know it all. A political football is not what we need. We need to look to the future to get it right.”
Lack of revisionism is not too surprising coming from a person whose personal, and future, fortune, is based on the past generosity of American, and now Irish taxpayers. Because his wealth is certainly not due to his skill at anything related to his actual career:
Sutherland was also a board member at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) during the financial meltdown when the UK bank collapsed into state arms after a frenetic, debt-fuelled growth. Of the bank’s 2007 role in the €71 billion acquisition of Dutch bank ABN Amro, the biggest ever banking takeover, Sutherland says it made “the mistake of buying at precisely the wrong time when the world was falling off the back of a bus”.
Perhaps instead of driving trucks full of cement into Parliament, Irish taxpayers can be a little more proactive, and ask one of their most respected "leaders" just on whose behalf he is working on in this latest bailout, which could easily be Ireland's last.
h/t Niall
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Yes
Irish bailout ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOzR3UAyXao&feature=related
Correct! Hey, that's one funny 3 minute video!
Are Paulson and Sutherland related? Inbreeding is very continental
Inbreeding is very House Of Rothschild too.
What's wrong with inbreeding?
Sorry,but I couldn't figure out which one of them was Paulson and which one was Sutherland. Give me a hand here, would ya?
Go ahead, rape the taxpayers some more.
They will wake a monster that will make Sinn Fein look like a an angry three legged Chihuahua.
What Irish citizens need to ask themselves is since when did Peter Sutherland get to decide who will be the Irish head of government? It can be no coincidence that Ireland and until recently the UK have been headed by the most anti-charismatic politicians who played a significant part in putting in place the conditions that lead to the endless string of crises we now experience. They held power at a time no-one else wanted it, knowing they could never normally have such a position.
It's not just the Irish tax payers, It's U.S. Taxpayers too. Either with the IMF or direct deposit. GS never looses.
Who is "Niall"? Is it THE "Niall"? That would be truly interesting...
Who is THE "Niall"?
Niall Ferguson...
Sting's brother who is related by marriage to his second cousin Bjork who was once the lover of the Artist Who Used to be Called Prince, and a friend of MeatLoaf, and had three illegitimate love bastards, Larry, Moe and Curly the latter of which, by the way was an accomplished Ball Room Dancer, which is the truth.
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Niall of the Nine Hostages?
Reminds me of the kind of damage Gary Oldman could inflict
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-fn2CQ8wE
The challenge is to direct the actus justificationis to the Squid and their little helpers and not set the rest of the continent on fire in the process. The Irish are never short on intensity when provoked...
I looked up the rate on the t-bill today on the treasury website and when the site came up, i got an eerie feeling that i was viewing a website for a crime syndicate--you should see what i mean, go look for yourself...with what has happened, and the fact that our government has legislated what should be illegal to enable the treasonous acts of a financial cartel, it may as well be accepted indeed we are living under the rule of racketeers....i pray for a peaceful resolution and a return of our lawful and great republic.
Surreal full time, all the time at this tipping point in the history of mankind.
is he irony of who's holding the gun lost on anyone?
..and no Chinese or Arab banks on the list, nor Citigroup.
I thought it was Bernie Madeoff-with-Other-Peoples-Money who said:
“It would have been better not to have an inquiry at this time because we have limited resources and a diversion of those limited human resources into an ex post facto analysis of the past is far less important than remedying the immediate problem that we have now.”
I thought it was Al Capone who said:
“It is a very difficult subject and to have all of these civil servants sitting in listening to bloody evidence on the past when they all know broadly what happened. We know what happened – we know it all. A political football is not what we need. We need to look to the future to get it right.”
+1
Guys, it is fucking amazing. Do you know how much media coverage the Germans
get from riots in Europe, the MBS mess in the US or the Irish bank problem?
ZERO!!!
...and do you know how much interest the plunging U.S. dollar attracts among the proles back in the States?
let me guess: zero?
"Bread an circuses" back in the Roman Empire or "trash TV and social benefits" nowadays
is that the Peter Sutherland that sits on the steering commitee of a certain secret society? Oh, yes!
Oh, that once Secret Society which everybody pooh-poohed as Conspiracy crap for all those years which turns out to be for real and is comprised of all the Power Elite who always wind up on the right side of every fucking trade, so to speak.
Yep, that's the one!
Oh, yeah, those guys. Which somehow reminds me of a stories of yore when Kings ruled and some of their financial enablers and benefactors became too openly smug about the theft from, lying to and repressive of the serfs. The conclusions which inevitably followed were that either the Kings killed off their very own financial benefactors and enablers as the last and final diversion to deflect the anger of the masses away from the throne itself, pleading innocence, as to how they'd been deceivedand the Entire Kingdom robbed, thus how the peon class had been taken by the evil Lords, whose actions had been hidden from the King... or, the serfs and middle class rose up alongside a few of the responsible and influential (or the craftily insightful so as to save their own skin) ultimately resulting in the replacement of the ruling elite.... sometimes in days of yore by violence, oft in modern days by ballot.
Similarly, it appears that the anger of the populace has reached a level wherein their focus has come upon the Lawgivers, the Policy Makers asthe Culprits, for They have been the ones Creating the Failing Policies always resulting in further Taxes and Burdens Applied to the Common in Order to Solve. Evidence recent polls. Folks are hurting and worried, nay frightened. The games of Business as Normal in the Good Times are Unsurprisingly Unravelling Under Duress. Amazing how TPTB continue to obfuscate and divert.... the Pot-O-Gold at the end of the Public Trough Rainbow must be Pretty Damned Big.
Hell, just history, and no reason to think that this time around we are exempt therefrom.
Same as it ever was.
A respectable member of the opposition a one Micheal Noonan has just admitted on Irish national radio that members of the ECB are camped in the Irish department of finance looking at the projected fiscal figures and adopting a policey of savage serf killing cuts <my words>.
The Irish serf is backstopping these entities yet has not even been given the privilege of knowing their names.
Meanwhile the Irish central bank has recently published figures of continued money supply declines yet we are expected to pay the interest on these vehicles that were the agents for the obscene credit growth in our economy chiefly through much higher interest on mortgages then would be the case and declining interest rates on deposits - with cascading negative effects on the tax take.
Also the interest rate on these vehicles is much higher then goverment debt yet no figures have been released about the amount of money leaving the country to pay this interest.
Ireland may be a small country but our external debt is monstrous with goverment debt a very small part of the pie.
We have been the cesspool of financial products that exploded under the euro regime since 2000 and the ECB is merely now in the process of keeping these products alive by shifting the burden on to the former citizens of Ireland.
Ireland is now a major battlefield in the great war between the central banks and private physical holders of Goldmoney.
The central banks are desperatly trying to preserve the wealth of their clients at all costs - there will be many casualties.......
The Irish find the real present oppressors who don't care about religion, they just screw everyone equally, how consistent. Both catholics and protestants have a reason to unite against the true enemy- the elite bankers and politicians taht are in their back pocket.
Irish republicanism was founded by a Protestant Wolfe Tone who once said;
"To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means."-
Any religion can be a member of the IRA
s sect. .
Everyone knew at the time, except it seems the clever guys like Sutherland (and Fred the Shred et al) at RBS, that they were ridiculously overpaying for ABN and at the wrong time. Barclays pulled out of the bidding. The London papers were commenting on it. Even the man on the street like me knew it was the wrong deal at the wrong time.
DavidC
That one has cost the Dutch govenment and taxpayer
220 bilions euros, and just for the fun of it, the
former CEO who 'steered'the disaster, came out recently to state
that the bank, due to be privatized in 2013, will
just be worth the 20 billion at that time....
the squid is everywhere.
Calamari anyone? Have the recipe for a great Irish red sauce.
Time to default and take back the nation.Years of hardword,saving,investing for what,to give everything on a plate to the ponzi banksters.This is going beyond survival for a lot of nations now.Unborn children paying debts they had no part in,politicians who just agreed to short term measures to stay on the gravy train,ECB robbing Peter to pay Paul.This is madness which will carry on for years unless stopped.How many regulators,banksters,politicians are in jail,no accountability,responsability,self respect or honesty,nuff said.
Yeah, bloody right. Let's everyone default before I can't afford a pint.
Great idea. Crush the Fed, and the rest of the banksters, before they crush us first.
If every able person bought an ounce of gold a year (or a month!) it would move a lot of wealth out of the system pretty fast. There is 261 million ounces (only) in the US reserves -- 8200 tonnes.
Probably first-ever reference to H.R. Giger on an economics blog. WIN!
http://picsicio.us/keyword/hr%20giger%20images/
My thoughts exactly. I was thinking the situation was best depicted by this Giger image:
fxmedia.blog.siol.net/files/2008/12/hr_giger_begoetterung_xi2.jpg
The cabal of private banks that issue the majority of the debt notes in the world main goal is to save itself, franchisees and distributor system.They have set their Dollar v Yen v Euro ratios and have implemented the Fed to hit the targets. China is the fly in the ointment, blocking outright manipulation and I think most everyone knows it.
In the mean time it is necessary for them to attach as much debt to the people of various countries in case things do get worse. Note the veiled bribe above, it's Mr Prime minister if you play ball with us. All you have to do is sell out your people. As long as they keep giving boatloads of money to politicians the sack of the world will continue.
As an aside on veiled threats, do you think Daly didn't want to die in office or was told by someone from Rahm's organization that he didn't want to die in office like his old man and it was time to retire. Gotta love Chicago politics.
Now you almost have to go with hyperinflation in the US as the short term goal in the US because of the MBS fiasco. Attach the hard assets and subvert legal claims with the help of your politician employees. Pay everything off (tax penalties, lawsuits and investors) with Bennie Hyper Bucks in a couple of years. Once the people are wiped out and you own everything, start loaning money!
So that is my theory looking at things driven from a Fed/ Central bank survival mode.
Charts
EUR/JPY http://99ercharts.blogspot.com/2010/10/eurjpy.html
EUR/USD http://99ercharts.blogspot.com/2010/10/eurusd_16.html
(Reuters) - European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet took issue with recent comments on ECB policy by Bundesbank chief Axel Weber, saying they did not represent the views of the central bank's governing council.
In an interview with Italian daily La Stampa on Sunday, Trichet said the governing council as a whole did not agree with Weber's remark last week that the ECB's government bond-buying program had not worked and should be scrapped.
You can't reason with a bully. You can't explain to a bully that what he is doing is hurting you and think that he will stop. You can't whine to other people about the bully and expect him to cease. You have to punch the bully in the face as hard as you can, and then he will stop. That is the only way to stop a bully. So our next task is to figure out what that punch to the face is.
To Dork of Cork and any other guys actually living in Ireland.
Is there any sign of life or backbone besides the guy who drove the cement mixer?
Any hope for the Irish people beyond talking and complaining?
The short answer to your question is - no. The media in Ireland, just like in the UK, are very, very good.
There is something happening underneath the surface but the dynamics are different then in Iceland as large sections of the middleclass have still much to lose as unlike Iceland their bank accounts are deposited in a currency with substantial buying power.
This I believe will change in the long run once the central banks have completed their coup but these stupid goldfish cannot recognize the medium that they are swimming in.
How do you take on these malcontents - its simple really - stop honouring their debt system until all risk bank capital has been destroyed.
However contrary to stereotype the Irish have few rebels withen its society and is preprogrammed to pay debts even when the rules are rigged.
Remember the Irish puritans who waged war on London in Dublin of 1916 were scorned on by the populace until they were martyred by a overly confident cabal.
But the underlying reason for Irish independence was a collapse of the Edwardian economy after the war and the transfer of wealth to America.
The Irish economy only recovered in the 60s when it was given access to credit by the Anglos in return for renouncing its puritanical beliefs in republicism.
The wheel is turning once again.
" contrary to stereotype the Irish have few rebels withen its society"
Maybe where you live Dork(by the way that name really suits you), but it was only the other day that two wooly-faced men with AK's jumped over my back garden wall on a little walk about exercise. If you would have a glimpse up north my friend you will see that we are all very much still "rebels". But as for the boys that want to bomb their way to a favorable fiscal policy, which i think is the line of enquiry here, well im as speachless as everyone else. That's not to say its not a hugely popular idea, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MDg7DRlrTA&feature=related
Hey Scratch, wether you like it or not our culture is half British and our republicism is a sad parody of itself given the schizophrenic nature of its inception with both a 18th century Protestant top layer and catholic foot soldiers propagandised by a 19th century papist education system with its own independent agenda.
Jesus Christ man, who gives a fiddlers where it is in some selective quasi-historical paradigm, it still plays the role of republicanism. I’m not quite sure where you are going with this actually dude, all i know is that i don’t want it ending with you insisting that i am to be happy under some inevitable British rule! Don’t get me wrong, i have a big place in my heart for the English, Welsh and Scottish, i mean that too, the people and the pop culture, but an islands' sovereignty is another matter altogether im afraid, sorry about that. I think of all countries Britain understands that (insert gag here), but her hands have been tied for a long long time. (awww bless em)
What sort of Republicanism are you willing to go forward with then Dork? Are you saying that Irish Republicanism shouldn’t exist because its been exploited at different points in its history, is that the gist of what you are saying?(strange point to make, all the same???) All i know is that if i tried to convince the republicans that I know that they are a sad parody of themselves, and that their dead family and friends are a sad parody of themselves, I don’t think I would succeed. I think you are coming at this from a place of much philosophical comfort, comfortable enough for you to go completely ape shit bonkers.
The subsequent fate of the land league movement after gaining control of the land again is a lesson to those who believe naively in the peoples ability to have a independent vibrant republic.
The running down of the Co op movement via capital rundown not unlike the current banking crisis would perhaps have persuaded Micheal Davitt not bothering to help the peasants.
All I say to you is that I know how the peasants of South Kerry think and it ain't altruistic.
I remember looking at a photograph of Kenmare serfs staring into the photographers lens and to the outsider their countenance seems to reflect a great hatred for their Bastard of a Landlord but the truth is envy was in their hearts and not righteous hatred and the credit bubble and acceptance of this monetory heroin was proof of their orcish nature.
The first republic was guided by a patrician elite - not poor festering souls squinting from narrow windows.
Although now they stare from large palatial mansions - all alone and comfortable until their precious paper will be destroyed and their means of heating and transport will be no more.
Hey, if you see Whitey Bulger over there hiding out with the guys he shipped the AKs to back in the sixties, will you tell him his ex- politician brother has worked out a deal with the FBI:
If he comes home to Boston, they won't kill him again.
Thx guys. I am Irish born so I know 10 years ago it wouldn't happen. I was hoping today might be different.
Isn't part of the issue here that Irish law somehow makes it so that if the government bails out the depositors it must also bail out the senior debt? At least that's what I recall reading sometime back when this issue first popped up. If anybody out there who is closer to the story knows whether there's any truth to this, and if there's any way to get around it (change the law?), please share.
Silly me, I thought Ireland was a Free Market miracle 3 years ago and the US had to deregulate further to compete with all those jobs headed to the Emerald Isles.
While Greece was imploding Ireland was held as the pinnacle of success of Austerity measures.
I wonder what the next wonderful success story will be bestowed on the blessed Irish, miracle of Europe!
Very true Jake very true.
We have become the whore of the many transnationals that move their capital around the world and may now pay the price in this new age of deglobalisation.
But we have always been a testing ground for grand plans and ideas - nothing new really.
So what is the tipping point? The point where the pint is put down and the pitchfork picked up?
December budget for me.
In Ireland - with honourable exceptions in social media such as Guido Fawkes (an Englishman) Indymedia.ie, and Politics.ie, the only public voice who has mentioned this is Sinn Féin's Martin Ferris:
http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/19429
“Take Peter Sutherland for example. He has held various high positions in this state and on behalf of this state abroad. His views are still given a lot of credence and he was recently widely quoted in claiming that this state had an obligation to protect the Anglo Irish bondholders.
“And of course he has been advising, in a totally disinterested way of course, the Government on how they should deal with the crisis. Among his proposals has been to sell state companies. And no doubt he probably knows chaps who might be interested in buying them at a fair price.
“How many of those who referred favourably to Sir Peter’s excellent advice also referred to his own possible self interest and the interest of his friends in all of this? He is, after all, Chairperson of Goldman Sachs whose Asset Management section is a key Anglo bondholder and which incidentally made profits of more than €13 billion last year.
“If our priority is to look after people like this, then the description given on one web site of Ireland as, ‘an international welfare state for super-rich bankers’ is all too accurate.”
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(Reuters) - European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet took issue with recent comments on ECB policy by Bundesbank chief Axel Weber, saying they did not represent the views of the central bank's governing council.
In an interview with Italian daily La Stampa on Sunday, Trichet said the governing council as a whole did not agree with Weber's remark last week that the ECB's government bond-buying program had not worked and should be scrapped.
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