One has to admire the 'balls' of the Icelandic public in deciding not only to burn bondholders, but to burn depositors also (in this instance the depositors have been reimbursed by both the UK and Dutch Governments).
Following a referendum the Icelandic public said 'no' to taking over the debt of a private bank, maintaining they have no legal obligation to do so.
Looking at the Irish situation, one has to wonder what our politicians are up to - there is no obligation on the Irish people to reimburse the 'gambling debts' of foreign institutions.
I dabble in the stock markets and have taken a punt on risky companies. Anyone with experience will have been there - these are high risk, high payout gambles on companies who are a one bet pony - their exploratory oil well will pump black or dry and the companies existence depends on this one roll of the dice.
Despite their 'high and mighty claims', the investors in the Irish financial institutions knew the risks, you don't put billions into a company without knowing a little about that company.
The German and French Governments have one single aim, that is to ensure their Financial Institutions (these very same investors) are not burned, thus taking billions out of their economies - do you think they really care about a 1% interest reduction - they could agree to this in a heartbeat.
The whole focus of the discussion has been deliberately moved to the Corporation Tax question and the Quid Pro Quo question to distract us from what and whom we are really bailing out.
It's time for Ireland to re-focus the argument onto the senior bond-holders and threaten a referendum if need be. The time for mucking about is over, your asking the staff of the racecourse to cover your bet as the bookies have gone bust and now you are demanding extra leverage - something has gone very wrong in these discussions.
As a parachute we need to open discussions with Beijing for 'working capital'.
It's time we got back into the driving seat and discussed the real Quid Pro Quo.
No comments:
Post a Comment