"Lenihan wants Anglo decision in weeks"- surely "makes"?

ashleey

Err...I thought he made the decisions?

I think it shows that any economic sovereignty has now gone, officially.


http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0906/anglo.html

In other words:

"We no longer have our own economic sovereignty and we are ruled by the Europeans. We cannot make any decisions on our own anymore (luckily). We will be increasing our corporation tax so that we are no longer a tax haven for fugitive companies and our children and their children will pay back the German banks in installments forever."

Is this being a bit unfair?

Nijmegen

The EU is backstopping our economy since 2008. And I'd rather a German ruling over this economy, given how well the Irish managed.

seamus

We're ultimately free to do whatever the hell we like, but the EU has put so much money aside to assist and the potential ramifications of a bad decision in this case are so enormous, that we would be highly negligent, as equal members of a union, to just press ahead and make the decision on our own without consultation and agreement from our union partners.

Having as many eyes looking at this thing as possible is preferable to the morons in government going it alone.

keithclancy

ashleey wrote: »

Err...I thought he made the decisions?

I think it shows that any economic sovereignty has now gone, officially.


http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0906/anglo.html

In other words:

"We no longer have our own economic sovereignty and we are ruled by the Europeans. We cannot make any decisions on our own anymore (luckily). We will be increasing our corporation tax so that we are no longer a tax haven for fugitive companies and our children and their children will pay back the German banks in installments forever."

Is this being a bit unfair?

Ireland had the party ... its just after getting the bill now and wondering how to split it up between its EU buddies ...

ashleey

keithclancy wrote: »

Ireland had the party ... its just after getting the bill now and wondering how to split it up between its EU buddies ...

I know that the Europeans have been supporting Ireland for the last 2 years believing that it will help them get their money back in the future. Are they not just repeating the Sean Quinn Anglo strategy of buying more as the price goes down? Is it inevitable that this strategy will fail?

Bear in mind that after the tax rises of the last 3 austerity budgets, total revenues are still down and the borrowing gap is no smaller.

Pete4779

ashleey wrote: »

Err...I thought he made the decisions?

I think it shows that any economic sovereignty has now gone, officially.


http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0906/anglo.html

In other words:

"We no longer have our own economic sovereignty and we are ruled by the Europeans. We cannot make any decisions on our own anymore (luckily). We will be increasing our corporation tax so that we are no longer a tax haven for fugitive companies and our children and their children will pay back the German banks in installments forever."

Is this being a bit unfair?

Lenihan is a lawyer and was put into the position as Minister for Finance to ensure that any legal threads which could implicate the core FF group and their buddies - and more importantly - make sure none of them were liable for the huge debts they ran up.

He has done his job - the end result is Anglo had most of it's debts transferred to the state. Furthermore, the balance sheet of bank gets cleaned up with more state borrowings (apparently this used to be against ECB rules but hey, I'm not a lawyer). End result? All the boys are off the hook legally for the tens of billions of debt, the state (i.e., taxpayer) is legally accountable for the debts.

The end result is the original intention. Anglo could have tanked on it's own. It was the state guarantee (by Lenihan and Cowen and the rest) that put the country in debt for their Anglo buddies.

RealityCheck

Hardly surprising since its European money thats keeping these banks alive. Nobody else would. If not for credit lines supplied from the ECB our banks would'nt function. For that reason its no wonder they might take a serious interest in the future of the banking system. That and state aid rules. If it was the Irish Central Bank that was lending to them it might be a different story.

BehindTheScenes

ashleey wrote: »

Err...I thought he made the decisions?

I think it shows that any economic sovereignty has now gone, officially.


http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0906/anglo.html

In other words:

"We no longer have our own economic sovereignty and we are ruled by the Europeans. We cannot make any decisions on our own anymore (luckily). We will be increasing our corporation tax so that we are no longer a tax haven for fugitive companies and our children and their children will pay back the German banks in installments forever."

Is this being a bit unfair?

Fiscal sovereignty went long ago. The new hierarchy of power is the EU and then the money markets sitting at the top dictating terms to everyone.

strathspey

Nijmegen wrote: »

The EU is backstopping our economy since 2008. And I'd rather a German ruling over this economy, given how well the Irish managed.

I was under the impression that Ireland only became a net contributor to EU funds in 2006. Therefore, the EU has been backstopping Ireland since 1973. Really we are no better than a 3rd world african country, constantly out with the begging bowl. I believe the EU will fund Ireland's banking disaster but with preconditions. Remember there is no such thing as a free lunch and one of those preconditions will be for Ireland to forego it's corporation tax. Basically in order for the EU to save us from ourselves, we will have to sell our voting rights. Make plans to emigrate folks. This is a bleak place for 8 months of the year at the best of times. A few decades of winter lie ahead.

imme

This shows that no ones 'in charge' and then they make decisions on the hoof, all quite frightening really.

Scarab80

Pete4779 wrote: »

He has done his job - the end result is Anglo had most of it's debts transferred to the state. Furthermore, the balance sheet of bank gets cleaned up with more state borrowings (apparently this used to be against ECB rules but hey, I'm not a lawyer). End result? All the boys are off the hook legally for the tens of billions of debt, the state (i.e., taxpayer) is legally accountable for the debts.

Who exactly are off the hook for tens of billions? The people who are getting off the hook are german, french and british banks and pension funds mostly. Are they now part of the inner circle of FF?

recedite

Pete4779 wrote: »

the balance sheet of bank gets cleaned up with more state borrowings (apparently this used to be against ECB rules but hey, I'm not a lawyer).

This is the reason the EU competition authority have got involved.