When Irish Eyes Are Crying

th3 s1aught3r

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103?currentPage=all

Long used to tragedy, Ireland suddenly found itself one of the world’s richest nations in the early 2000s, at which point the Irish people, banks, and government did their best to screw things up. Michael Lewis reports

henryporter

Can't say I disagree with him

RachaelVO

Like a teenager with their first summer job and we blew the lot and had to borrow the money from our parents for the debs!!!!!!!!

As was said above, how the hell do we disagree with it!:mad:

orourkeda

No way. We have to like read and sh*t

Grasshoppa

The guy in that photo looks a bit like a shifty Enda Kenny.

Gunsfortoys

We should just pay the IMF a tenner a week like the property devloper lad. Surely that is a fair offer.

Kasabian

Read this last night. Well worth a read and gives a good insight into the things that went on as our country sank.

The Polish leaving all the cars in Dublin Airport was a detail that kind of epitomised where we are now.

Makes a mockery of Bertie's statement of wishing someone had told him what was going on with the banks.

red menace

Yep the story is as insightful as it was last week when it was posted here

henryporter

Grasshoppa wrote: »

The guy in that photo looks a bit like a shifty Enda Kenny.

That guy in the photo was the only one who said we were going down the sh1tter before it actually happened - on the other hand Enda Kenny is a plonker who gets to 'lead' the country further down said sh1tter

Kasabian

red menace wrote: »

Yep the story is as insightful as it was last week when it was posted here

Some people don't spend all their time here. Anymore insightful comments ?

Fight_Night

henryporter wrote: »

That guy in the photo was the only one who said we were going down the sh1tter before it actually happened - on the other hand Enda Kenny is a plonker who gets to 'lead' the country further down said sh1tter

yeah but the resemblance between them is uncanny

orourkeda

Gunsfortoys wrote: »

We should just pay the IMF a tenner a week like the property devloper lad. Surely that is a fair offer.

That was truly magnificent

darragh16

Chap who wrote the article seems like a bit of a dick

orourkeda

Morgan Kelly should have gone to the long hall pub across the road instead.

Nicer pints and sure arent we in it for the long haul anyway.

henryporter

orourkeda wrote: »

Morgan Kelly should have gone to the long hall pub across the road instead.

Nicer pints and sure arent we in it for the long haul anyway.

Very true - nicer pints mmmm

Sanjuro

Kasabian wrote: »

Makes a mockery of Bertie's statement of wishing someone had told him what was going on with the banks.

He did a fine job of that himself on countless occasions.

th3 s1aught3r

Kasabian wrote: »

Read this last night. Well worth a read and gives a good insight into the things that went on as our country sank.

The Polish leaving all the cars in Dublin Airport was a detail that kind of epitomised where we are now.

Makes a mockery of Bertie's statement of wishing someone had told him what was going on with the banks.

Its hard to know even where to begin with Berties statements
"Nobody told me" , "I would have handled it differently" (n relation to how Cowen handled it
He just doesnt know how to be honest without trying to worm his way out of things

Kasabian

th3 s1aught3r wrote: »

Its hard to know even where to begin with Berties statements
"Nobody told me" , "I would have handled it differently" (n relation to how Cowen handled it
He just doesnt know how to be honest without trying to worm his way out of things

Shocking that his incompetence was rewarded with a severence payment and pensions.

The man is a total prick. I fúcking hate him and all he stands for. People have died in this country for less. History will record him as a liar, I would hate if I grew up to know that the majority of people in the country considers my Dad / Grandad to be a piece of scum who lied to the people he swore to serve.

It is in years to come that his true legacy will be clear to all.

NeedaNewName

Great Article.
This was the best bit IMO

Kelly’s colleagues in the University College economics department watched his transformation from serious academic to amusing crackpot to disturbingly prescient guru with interest. One was Colm McCarthy, who, in the Irish recession of the late 1980s, had played a high-profile role in slashing government spending, and so had experienced the intersection of finance and public opinion. In McCarthy’s view, the dominant narrative inside the head of the average Irish citizen—and his receptiveness to the story Kelly was telling—changed at roughly 10 o’clock in the evening on October 2, 2008. On that night, Ireland’s financial regulator, a lifelong Central Bank bureaucrat in his 60s named Patrick Neary, came live on national television to be interviewed. The interviewer sounded as if he had just finished reading the collected works of Morgan Kelly. Neary, for his part, looked as if he had been dragged from a hole into which he badly wanted to return. He wore an insecure little mustache, stammered rote answers to questions he had not been asked, and ignored the ones he had been asked.
A banking system is an act of faith: it survives only for as long as people believe it will. Two weeks earlier the collapse of Lehman Brothers had cast doubt on banks everywhere. Ireland’s banks had not been managed to withstand doubt; they had been managed to exploit blind faith. Now the Irish people finally caught a glimpse of the guy meant to be safeguarding them: the crazy uncle had been sprung from the family cellar. Here he was, on their televisions, insisting that the Irish banks were “resilient” and “more than adequately capitalized” … when everyone in Ireland could see, in the vacant skyscrapers and empty housing developments around them, evidence of bank loans that were not merely bad but insane. “What happened was that everyone in Ireland had the idea that somewhere in Ireland there was a little wise old man who was in charge of the money, and this was the first time they’d ever seen this little man,” says McCarthy. “And then they saw him and said, Who the **** was that??? Is that the ****ing guy who is in charge of the money??? That’s when everyone panicked.”

hellyeah

great article. thanks for posting op.:D

bluecatmorgana

Thanks for posting OP, its the first time I actually understand the bank guarantee. Also I like to get a non-Irish view point.

Xiney

You should read the one he wrote about Greece:

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/greeks-bearing-bonds-201010


It's actually the first thing ever to make me feel better about the situation Ireland is in!

th3 s1aught3r

hellyeah wrote: »

great article. thanks for posting op.:D

Its weird that an article in Vanity Fair can explain things to people more clearly than listening to politicians spoofing

galwayrush

Lenihan forgot to mention this article in any of his self praising speeches....:rolleyes:

De Dannan

th3 s1aught3r wrote: »

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103?currentPage=all

Long used to tragedy, Ireland suddenly found itself one of the world’s richest nations in the early 2000s, at which point the Irish people, banks, and government did their best to screw things up. Michael Lewis reports

Brilliant article !
Recommend everyone should have a read of it

MastiffMrs

Very good article. Does make me feel like we should make more of a fuss tho.why do Irish people not protest more? If others were interested in fighting the banks re increasing mortgage interest rates, I'd definitely join in!

Mena

MastiffMrs wrote: »

why do Irish people not protest more?

You answered your own question.

MastiffMrs wrote: »

If others were interested in fighting the banks re increasing mortgage interest rates, I'd definitely join in!

Because everyone is waiting for "someone else" to do it.

th3 s1aught3r

MastiffMrs wrote: »

Very good article. Does make me feel like we should make more of a fuss tho.why do Irish people not protest more? If others were interested in fighting the banks re increasing mortgage interest rates, I'd definitely join in!

I think that the international community is bemused by how much the Irish people put up with , without getting protesty
We are just a soft touch I guess

Mr Benevolent

Enda Kenny looks like a cross between a perverted Christian Brother and a crooked accountant.

fontanalis

darragh16 wrote: »

Chap who wrote the article seems like a bit of a dick

No he wasn't; the irish situation is ripe for mockery and lampoonery. He was very fair, that article needs to be read by everyone.
Read his book The Big Short for an account of the American financial crisis.

thebigbiffo

yeah this article was recommended to me this morning and i managed to get by the bleak and stereotype ridden first page - it is a very good article. favourite quote:

'ahern is now a feature writer for the sports section in the news of the world newspaper, probably the least respected job in global media'

GLOBAL media:D

th3 s1aught3r

thebigbiffo wrote: »

yeah this article was recommended to me this morning and i managed to get by the bleak and stereotype ridden first page - it is a very good article. favourite quote:

'ahern is now a feature writer for the sports section in the news of the world newspaper, probably the least respected job in global media'

GLOBAL media:D

Probably the least respected man in Ireland too right now:pac:

De Dannan

th3 s1aught3r wrote: »

Probably the least respected man in Ireland too right now:pac:

Its funny how Bertie has dissappeared off the radar. After he quit as Taoiseach there was talk of him getting important jobs in Europe, even running for president.
Is he still writing for that paper in the cupboard ? (I dont read it)

Monty Burnz

henryporter wrote: »

That guy in the photo was the only one who said we were going down the sh1tter before it actually happened - on the other hand Enda Kenny is a plonker who gets to 'lead' the country further down said sh1tter

He was only one of the many, and he only started publishing on it around late 2006. He was dead right, but the damage was mostly done by that stage.

Lets not write out of history all the other people who tried to warn the public and the government about this disaster. I think they used to be labelled 'doomsayers'. I prefer the term, 'truth tellers'.

th3 s1aught3r

fontanalis wrote: »

No he wasn't; the irish situation is ripe for mockery and lampoonery. He was very fair, that article needs to be read by everyone.
Read his book The Big Short for an account of the American financial crisis.

Reading this book at the moment. Its very good

While Wall Street was busy creating the biggest credit bubble of all time, a few renegade investors saw it was about to burst, bet against the banking system – and made a fortune. From the jungles of the trading floor to the casinos of Las Vegas, this is the outrageous story of the misfits, mavericks and geniuses who, against all odds, made the greatest financial killing in history.

Son Of A Vidic

[/QUOTE] Ireland suddenly found itself one of the world’s richest nations in the early 2000s[/QUOTE]

Richest nations? Based on what tangible resources? Oh ya Credit - otherwise known as the 'The Paper Tiger'. The Tiger was always an illusion, when I returned to Ireland I was nearly exiled for expressing this view. Some people lost the run of themselves with excess credit and the illusion of wealth. We now have to pay for such stupidity.

th3 s1aught3r

Ireland suddenly found itself one of the world’s richest nations in the early 2000s[/QUOTE]

Richest nations? Based on what tangible resources? [/QUOTE]

Well the Irish government were taking in massive amounts of money from taxation and particulary corporate taxation of multinationals here during the boom. That was not credit. What they chose to do with all that wealth is another matter