Who cares if we all go bust and burn to death,as long as the incompetent banks are saved and
their criminal bosses can keep their millions...
Showing posts with label crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crisis. Show all posts
Monday 20 October 2008
The Banks will be saved
Who cares if we all go bust and burn to death,as long as the incompetent banks are saved and
their criminal bosses can keep their millions...
The Banks are still run by Criminals
Today I met two old friends for lunch. Liam and Mary are a happily married couple, have children and belong to the small portion of Irish people who did not go crazy during the time of the 'Celtic Tiger'.
They both have a good job and are reasonably well-off. Nevertheless they are now struggling to pay their mortgage, as they told me.
"We still can manage the monthly payments," Liam said, "but in order to do so we have to cut back on other things. No more second holidays, and less sweets for the children, for example."
I listened with interest, and I know they will manage somehow. They are both resourceful people.
But then I was very surprised when Mary told something else. Her bank had just rang her and asked if she wanted an extra loan. Liam, who has a small business, had a similar call from a different bank a few days earlier.
"They must know that we have a mortgage," Mary said, "and when they look at our account details, they can see that we are not big spenders. So why are they trying to push loans into our face, even after the big disaster they got themselves into and nearly busted the banks?"
"Yes," Liam agreed, "they nearly went down, if the state had not bailed them out with the taxpayers' money."
I am as baffled as Liam and Mary. But what they told me is not an exception, it is rather the rule. Over the past couple of weeks I had several people telling me the same. Their bank rang them and asked if they wanted an extra loan.
What is going on? Do the banks not have enough trouble? All of the Irish banks are vastly under-capitalised, badly managed and at the brink of collapse. You would expect them to be tight now and lend less than before. But that's not the case. They seem to carry on as before, and in some cases even more aggressively.
Makes no sense, unless you see behind the scenes. Now, that the state has guaranteed the banks' eternal existence with our money, they are save and have no more worries at all. If they recover from the crisis - great. And if not - well, the state will pick up the tab, which means you and me.
By pushing ever more loans onto people, they also hope to make more money from interest and - in case the borrower gets into arrears - nice extra fees they are so quick to add in such cases to the amount owed. The other day I read about a widow who had borrowed a small sum from her bank to make repairs on her house. Then she got sick, could not continue with the agreed repayments, and now the amount the bank demands from her has risen astronomically. They are looking for more than five times the sum she had borrowed from them!
That's criminal behaviour, and should not happen at all. And now, that the state and we - the people - are guaranteeing the banks' existence with our money, the banks should change their behaviour, and do it quickly.
If they don't do that, the day will come when the people will tear them apart and applaud when they go down. They are playing with fire very close to the fuel tank. They have learned nothing from the crisis. And they are still run by the same old criminals who caused the crisis in the first place.
Heads need to roll, especially the heads of the top bankers and their fancy 'traders' who do nothing else but gamble our money away in big international casinos, called 'stock exchanges' and 'financial markets'. These people never produce anything, never buy or sell anything real, and don't give a hoot for the rest of us. They award themselves with huge 'bonuses' for their criminal gambling, and we all are supposed to pick up the tab when they mess up.
It is ever more clear to me that all this crisis can only be overcome in one way: With a big revolution!
They both have a good job and are reasonably well-off. Nevertheless they are now struggling to pay their mortgage, as they told me.
"We still can manage the monthly payments," Liam said, "but in order to do so we have to cut back on other things. No more second holidays, and less sweets for the children, for example."
I listened with interest, and I know they will manage somehow. They are both resourceful people.
But then I was very surprised when Mary told something else. Her bank had just rang her and asked if she wanted an extra loan. Liam, who has a small business, had a similar call from a different bank a few days earlier.
"They must know that we have a mortgage," Mary said, "and when they look at our account details, they can see that we are not big spenders. So why are they trying to push loans into our face, even after the big disaster they got themselves into and nearly busted the banks?"
"Yes," Liam agreed, "they nearly went down, if the state had not bailed them out with the taxpayers' money."
I am as baffled as Liam and Mary. But what they told me is not an exception, it is rather the rule. Over the past couple of weeks I had several people telling me the same. Their bank rang them and asked if they wanted an extra loan.
What is going on? Do the banks not have enough trouble? All of the Irish banks are vastly under-capitalised, badly managed and at the brink of collapse. You would expect them to be tight now and lend less than before. But that's not the case. They seem to carry on as before, and in some cases even more aggressively.
Makes no sense, unless you see behind the scenes. Now, that the state has guaranteed the banks' eternal existence with our money, they are save and have no more worries at all. If they recover from the crisis - great. And if not - well, the state will pick up the tab, which means you and me.
By pushing ever more loans onto people, they also hope to make more money from interest and - in case the borrower gets into arrears - nice extra fees they are so quick to add in such cases to the amount owed. The other day I read about a widow who had borrowed a small sum from her bank to make repairs on her house. Then she got sick, could not continue with the agreed repayments, and now the amount the bank demands from her has risen astronomically. They are looking for more than five times the sum she had borrowed from them!
That's criminal behaviour, and should not happen at all. And now, that the state and we - the people - are guaranteeing the banks' existence with our money, the banks should change their behaviour, and do it quickly.
If they don't do that, the day will come when the people will tear them apart and applaud when they go down. They are playing with fire very close to the fuel tank. They have learned nothing from the crisis. And they are still run by the same old criminals who caused the crisis in the first place.
Heads need to roll, especially the heads of the top bankers and their fancy 'traders' who do nothing else but gamble our money away in big international casinos, called 'stock exchanges' and 'financial markets'. These people never produce anything, never buy or sell anything real, and don't give a hoot for the rest of us. They award themselves with huge 'bonuses' for their criminal gambling, and we all are supposed to pick up the tab when they mess up.
It is ever more clear to me that all this crisis can only be overcome in one way: With a big revolution!
Thursday 2 October 2008
The Big World Crisis
If you or I have a company and make the wrong business decisions, we will go to the wall. We'll lose a lot of money, and in the worst scenario we'll go bankrupt.
No-one would give a hoot for us, and if we're lucky we might qualify for some social welfare money.
If you are a farmer, you can mess up as often as you like. No matter how bad your mistakes might be, the government and the EU will keep you afloat with plenty of subsidies and compensation pay.
But if you are a banker, you are really in luck. You are the jackpot winner of all jackpots! No matter how stupid, selfish and greedy you are; no matter how much money you lost through speculation or hazardous gambling on the 'international markets' (which have nothing to buy and nothing to sell and are just huge casinos for the super-rich and their agents); and no matter how much you cooked your books and lied to everyone - you are safe.
Governments need you, as they borrow money all the time. If they let you go bust, who's going to lend them the money?
So they will bail you out, lucky bankers, no matter what and no matter how much it costs.
Ireland has just pledged the nominal value of the whole country - about € 400 billion - as 100% guarantee for the Irish banks and all their deposits and loans.
Holy shit! Just imagine something goes wrong again...
What would happen? Would we be all collectively bankrupt?
Fall into anarchy and become a failed state, something like Somalia?
Or would we perhaps end up being ruled by the English again?
They'd love that. And there are plenty of idiots here who'd love to have a Queen anyway. (Just check the Irish sales figures for the UK glamour magazines full of royals and other wasters...)
But we are small fry really. In the USA they want to give the failed banks on Wall Street $ 700 billion of John Doe's tax money, in exchange for bad debts and 'toxic' loans and mortgages. Now that's a great idea and shows what a sensible and prudent investor 'Dubya' really is...
Having wasted more than $ 600 billion (and counting) on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he's now going out with a real bang, robbing the US taxpayers of another $ 700 billion and giving it to his friends.
But where's that money coming from? Not even the US Federal Reserve would get away with printing such a vast sum of new money. It would put the value of the US Dollar into free-fall, and it could play catch-up with the Zimbabwe Dollar.
No, this money has to be real. So who has such sums sitting around in ready cash? There's only one country at present, and that's China. After we have outsourced almost all our manufacturing to China, they now produce everything we need. And we pay them for it handsomely.
But as they have no real need for our cash, they've been hoarding it for years. Now they use it for loans to the US government. Which means that sooner or later the Chinese could be the real masters of America.
I don't know which would be worse - Chinese communists in the White House, or Ireland back under the Queen of England...
Next time I come across a banker, I'll give him a good hiding. This won't change anything, but I will feel a lot better afterwards.
No-one would give a hoot for us, and if we're lucky we might qualify for some social welfare money.
If you are a farmer, you can mess up as often as you like. No matter how bad your mistakes might be, the government and the EU will keep you afloat with plenty of subsidies and compensation pay.
But if you are a banker, you are really in luck. You are the jackpot winner of all jackpots! No matter how stupid, selfish and greedy you are; no matter how much money you lost through speculation or hazardous gambling on the 'international markets' (which have nothing to buy and nothing to sell and are just huge casinos for the super-rich and their agents); and no matter how much you cooked your books and lied to everyone - you are safe.
Governments need you, as they borrow money all the time. If they let you go bust, who's going to lend them the money?
So they will bail you out, lucky bankers, no matter what and no matter how much it costs.
Ireland has just pledged the nominal value of the whole country - about € 400 billion - as 100% guarantee for the Irish banks and all their deposits and loans.
Holy shit! Just imagine something goes wrong again...
What would happen? Would we be all collectively bankrupt?
Fall into anarchy and become a failed state, something like Somalia?
Or would we perhaps end up being ruled by the English again?
They'd love that. And there are plenty of idiots here who'd love to have a Queen anyway. (Just check the Irish sales figures for the UK glamour magazines full of royals and other wasters...)
But we are small fry really. In the USA they want to give the failed banks on Wall Street $ 700 billion of John Doe's tax money, in exchange for bad debts and 'toxic' loans and mortgages. Now that's a great idea and shows what a sensible and prudent investor 'Dubya' really is...
Having wasted more than $ 600 billion (and counting) on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he's now going out with a real bang, robbing the US taxpayers of another $ 700 billion and giving it to his friends.
But where's that money coming from? Not even the US Federal Reserve would get away with printing such a vast sum of new money. It would put the value of the US Dollar into free-fall, and it could play catch-up with the Zimbabwe Dollar.
No, this money has to be real. So who has such sums sitting around in ready cash? There's only one country at present, and that's China. After we have outsourced almost all our manufacturing to China, they now produce everything we need. And we pay them for it handsomely.
But as they have no real need for our cash, they've been hoarding it for years. Now they use it for loans to the US government. Which means that sooner or later the Chinese could be the real masters of America.
I don't know which would be worse - Chinese communists in the White House, or Ireland back under the Queen of England...
Next time I come across a banker, I'll give him a good hiding. This won't change anything, but I will feel a lot better afterwards.
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