Government Policy – Page 3 – Eamonn Blaneys Website

What Are The Alternatives To This Economic Disaster? (Sunday Indo 12 Sept 2010)

September 10, 2010 eblaney

To be published in the Sunday Independent 12 Sept 2010

On numerous occasions in the last week we have heard our Minister for finance Mr. Lenihan remind us of the necessity to continue to guarantee the banks. Not to have done so initially would almost certainly have meant the instant financial collapse for our state. Of the two options open to him (letting the banks go, being the first), guaranteeing the Irish banks was the only practical option. Well, according to those who were advising himself and Mr. Cowen on that fateful night, when the crises meeting took place in Government Buildings.
Let’s face it, this is what he was told by the CEO’s and the Chairmen of Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland. And these people should know shouldn’t they? These were the same people who, we had been led to believe, understood international finance, economics and the creation of wealth. After all, the bankers were finance professionals and Mr. Lenihan and Mr. Cowen, were legal professionals. You wouldn’t go to a solicitor for financial advice nor vice versa, would you? Our representatives at the meeting (Zig & Zag) were either lied to or they were incompetent, or both. Fortunately for everyone in the room that night, we’ll never know as there were no minutes taken at the meeting. Yeah, right.
We can only surmise that the bankers put up an extremely strong case for the guaranteeing of the banks and strangely Anglo Irish bank, which they knew was in serious trouble. The problem is, Mr. Lenihan has ever told us what, specifically, the alternatives were. Sure, we have heard the warnings of “economic meltdown” and “imminent collapse of the financial system” etc etc. But so far, nobody has actually told us what these mean. What advice specifically did Mr. Lenihan and Mr. Cowen receive from the bankers? What “appalling vista” lay before them that left them with no choice but to guarantee the Irish banks and therefore a generation to economic hardship? I, for one, would really like to know the answer. I mean, how bad would the alternative have been? ./………… [Read More]

Default and be damned – Sunday Indo, Sept 5th ’10

September 5, 2010 eblaney

The banks effectively want it every way, full security against all monies that have been borrowed from them in the form of a personal guarantee from each mortgage holder and failing that, a state guarantee, notwithstanding the fact that they already hold the deeds of your property. But hold on, it gets worse. As a direct result of their utter incompetence, the banks lost all their capital reserves, then the equity (share value) thereby threatening all the depositors money which should then place all the bond holders at risk of loses as well. Yet they expect that these losses should be paid back in full by you the mortgage holder, tax payer or citizen or else we “risk damage to our international reputation”. The bondholders knew the risks (that’s their job) and individual investors and depositors should have too. [Read More]

Sunday Indo Aug 22nd 2010 – Root Out Public Sector and bank ‘untouchables’

August 22, 2010 eblaney

The Sunday Independent article I wrote, which was published on 22 August 2010

We have now reached the stage where for every one person on the Live Register there is another person, who is a public servant. So for the purpose of simplicity, we can say that there are 450,000 people unemployed and 450,000 public and civil servants. This accounts for 900,000 people out of the total workforce of 2.1 million. Or put another way, nearly a quarter of the entire workforce is in the public service and a quarter unemployed. [Read More]

The solution to this crisis is in our hands – Sunday Independent

July 11, 2010 eblaney

Have you noticed the endless stream of economic experts telling us about things we don’t understand, in a language we have never heard? For example, you may have heard the term ‘quantitative easing’ mentioned, which actually means ‘printing more paper money’. What it does not tell you is that this is effectively money borrowed today from our taxes tomorrow. There are 100’s of similar examples. These so-called economic experts are the very people who could not forecast the largest economic collapse in the history of the State. These are the same people who told you that house prices would continue to rise. These are the people who talk about “green shoots of recovery”. These are the people who have consistently lied to you, whether this was maliciously or through incompetence, you can decide yourself. [Read More]

400,000 Euros per job created ? There is a better way…

July 10, 2010 eblaney

Recently, The Minister for Trade Enterprise and (Un)Employment Mr. Batt O’Keeffe ,announced the creation of 50 high-tech jobs, at a cost of €20 million. Not surprisingly these jobs are are to be created in his constituency. Think about that for a moment, €400,000 for each job created. And even then, the profits are repatriated to the parent companies Country of origin. [Read More]

The Elephant in the NAMA Room

December 15, 2009 eblaney

To read the full article, please click on the Headline above.
The ‘Associated Loans’ are the amount of money that was lent to borrowers which was secured against the anticipated increase in the value of the underlying asset! The formula used to calculate the anticipated increase in value must be the same as used to calculate the length of a piece of string…. [Read More]

Budget, How Are Ya ?

December 8, 2009 eblaney

Why the public outcry over what will be the ‘most draconian’ budget in the history of the State ? The reason I ask is assuming that it does make it through the Dail vote all that it will have achieved is getting an additional €4 Billion into our public piggy bank. ‘ €4 billion, that’s an enormous amount of additional revenue” ? I hear you cry. It is enormous but it is not nearly enough. Unfortunately, since I pointed out in a previous posting (economic-civil-war-revisited ) the actual amount of our debt has increased by a further €8 Billion, simply because the Government did not act back in February when they knew the scale of the problem. If that’s not bad enough, next years spending will increase by an additional €5 Billion compared to this year ! [Read More]

It’s Really All Our Fault, Isn’t It ?

November 24, 2009 eblaney

In just the last two weeks, four restaurants and a bookshop have closed in my area. Having spoken with some of the owners, who have been through previous recessions, it became very clear that this recession is unlike any other and far deeper in its reach. Instead of concentrating on the present headlines regarding bank remuneration or private versus public service workers, I have decided to take much more of a “helicopter” view of our present situation and how we all contributed to it more importantly. How we can all do something constructive to get out of it. As much as I do not wish to be a bearer of bad news, unfortunately our economy is going to get a lot worse. I will not go into the reasons why it will get worse now, but by April of next year we will truly understand the meaning of a recession. [Read More]

March with the Union’s ?

November 5, 2009 eblaney

The people are angry. An understatement you might say, but there is no doubt that the mood in the country has changed significantly in the last few months people are angry, frustrated and close to despair. There is a palpable sense that the country is lurching from one economic crisis to another and that the proposed solutions are being made up on the hoof. [Read More]

‘Economic Civil War’ Revisited

October 31, 2009 eblaney

I first posted this article Feb 12th 2009 and although my timing was out by a few months the articles content is now more relevant than ever, particulary as members of the public are finally waking up to crisis that we are all in. As of the end of sept. 2009 the National Debt stood at 77,754,000,000 Euros or €35,342 for every worker in the Country (a loan which you personally must pay back). This will rise to €54,909 within three years even taking account of having had a reduction in the national budget of €4 billion in each of these years! You may notice that the term ‘Economic Civil War’ appeared here first…… [Read More]