Irish Billionaire is fined Pocket Money

Sean Quinn from Co. Fermanagh
is a self-made billionaire and currently Ireland's
richest man, with a personal fortune of about
€ 4 billion.

For irregular loans worth € 288 million between two of his
companies he has been fined by Ireland's Financial Regulator
the sum of € 3.25 million.
For a man like Sean that's really just pocket money, but
going by his reaction it seems that it still hurts his pride.

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!

Lenihan robs the Poor and spares the Rich

What do you expect from a lawyer?
- To be taken to the cleaners.

And what do you expect from a lawyer who is Minister for Finance?
- To be taken to the cleaners even more.

So today's Budget should not really surprise you.

We are in recession and the economy is shrinking, thanks to ten years of clueless government that was too busy with filling its own pockets and those of their millionaire cronies. They simply had no time to look after the people and the country, or prepare for the rainy days that inevitably come in Ireland after a period of sunshine.

But now that it not just rains, but pours, Brian Lenihan - a Dublin lawyer, TD and Minister for Finance - has to deliver the bad news to everybody, except Fianna Fail's millionaire cronies of course.
They are getting away with the loot from the 'Celtic Tiger' scot free, laughing all the way to the bank, if they can still find one that is trustworthy.

So, after the government, that was still swimming in extra billions only two years ago, has lost all credibility and squandered all the money, we - the people of Ireland - will have to pay for it.

Well, that's only fair, isn't it? After all, we elected the scoundrels, and kept electing them, since we were too blind, too drunk or both to see what was happening around us.

We all will pay more income tax, which is fine with me. In a crisis we all have to pull together and make a contribution. But what is not correct is that we all have to pay 1% extra, while those with an annual income over € 100,000 pay only 2% extra. They could easily afford 3% or even 5% as a contribution. Or Lenihan could have made a sliding scale: 1% for everyone; 2% for those with more than € 100,000; 3% for those over € 200,000; 4% for those with € 300,000 or more; and 5% for those over € 500,000.
But no, the rich and super-rich are still untouchable in Ireland, at least as long as Fianna Fail is in government.

Instead the over 70-year-olds will be robbed of their medical card, which Fianna Fail gave them seven years ago to buy the grey vote. This - so Lenihan says - will save € 100 million a year. It's a very bad joke. While we are bailing out the corrupt and incompetent banks with up to € 400 billion of state (= taxpayers' money) guarantee, we now have to scrap the barrel for an extra € 100 million from the old age pensioners.

This is not only scandalous, it is declaring war on the old and sick! Almost a kind of state-educed fiscal euthenasia.

There is a lot more, but I won't bore you with the details, as you can read them all in tomorrow's newspapers. As usual cigarettes, wine and petrol will get dearer, and the farmers and millionaires will keep their perks.

Thanks a lot, Brian! You had the chance to make a real mark with your first budget, and you had the opportunity to be seen as a man who cares and can handle money well. Sadly you missed the golden opportunity to unite the people and make the rich pay their share to the national recovery funds. You have not. Instead you prefare to run down the same lane all your shabby predecessors - from Haughey over Bertie to Biffo - have chosen: rob the poor, the old and the young, squeeze the hard-working middle classes, but leave your fat cat cronies in joy and luxury.

It might take another while, but after this budget - on top of all the other bad decisions Fianna Fail made over the past ten years - you will have your come-uppence in good time. Anyone who will still vote Fianna Fail in future deserves to be stripped and robbed of everything and left by the wayside. That's also the place where you will find yourself, after the Irish voters are finished with you and your ilk.

What a Difference 18 Months make...

Last week everyone - from bankers over politicians to ordinary folk - were shocked by the sudden and total collapse of the Icelandic banking group ICEBANK.

For years that bank had grown and grown, out of all proportions, and no-one seemed to have realised that Iceland is a small country with only 300,000 people, no heavy industry and - apart from fishing and whaling - not much industry at all. So why was this tiny country with very few resources suddenly so attractive as a banking place?

The answer is risk. ICEBANK was willing to take more and higher risks than most other banks, and in exchange they offered higher interest rates to their customers. Many of the small deposits are safeguarded by various national guarantee schemes. But no-one has any idea what is going to happen to larger investors, including 'Transport for London' (which deposited over £ 40 million), more than 100 UK county councils and - wait for it - also several UK police authorities.

You wonder why all these official British institutions did not trust British banks and put their money into off-shore accounts in Iseland?

I just came across an ICEBANK press release, less than 18 months old. Read it for yourself, and you will undertstand why we are in a crisis. (The original text was set in plain type. Emboldened parts and those set in red are my way of highlighting important points. Green text is added by me.)

Hint: Pay special attention to the list of other banks that are involved in the interconnected and multi-nationally entangled financial transaction. If you have any money left in any of the banks listed, then take it out as soon as you can.

Largest syndicated loan facility
in Icebank’s history

Reykjavík, 26 April 2007

ICEBANK today signed a syndicated term loan facility for € 217,000,000 - which is equivalent to ISK 19 billion - provided by 34 European banks. Owing to heavy oversubscription and the number of investors who showed interest, the final figure is more than twice what Icebank originally sought. This is indicative of the high level of confidence that Icebank enjoys abroad, and is seen by its management as an encouragement to further expansion both in Iceland and abroad.

The signing of the loan facility took place in Berchtesgaden, Germany. [Why? Was Reykjavík not good or posh enough? No, that's not it. Icebank combined the signing of the new scheme with a happy day-out of food, fun and games for its staff, visiting the world-famous Berchtesgaden salt mines in passing as well. (see photos below)]

The loan facility, which is for a term of three years, was launched for general syndication on 8 March this year, and the response was immediately strong. The interest premium, 0.46%, is in line with the terms that Iceland’s banks currently enjoy. The loan will be used to refinance older loans and to finance Icebank’s further expansion.

“This high level of oversubscription by European investors reflects the high level of confidence they have in the bank,” says Finnur Sveinbjörnsson, CEO of Icebank.

“Their response is an encouragement to us, and opens up a lot of interesting possibilities in accordance with our strategy. Last year saw the best performance in Icebank’s history, and it is well prepared for further expansion.”

Four prominent European banks acted as mandated lead arrangers: BayernLB (which had its own scandal already earlier and is now deeply affected by the collapse of Hypo Real Estate) in Germany, Fortis Bank (which collapsed a few days ago and had to be rescued by the governments of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) in Belgium, HSH Nordbank in Germany and the Austrian bank Raiffeisen Zentralbank. A list of other providers is appended below.

For further information please contact:
Finnur Sveinbjörnsson, CEO of Icebank, tel. 540 4000.
Agnar Hansson, Managing Director, Treasury and Capital Markets, tel. 540 4000.

ICEBANK is a commercial bank, focusing on wholesale and investment banking services to savings banks, Icelandic and foreign financial institutions and other large customers. It is owned by the savings banks in Iceland (a miniscule country of only 300,000 people).

Other providers:

Lead Arrangers:

• Commerzbank International S.A.
• Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, London Branch
• Natixis
• Norddeutsche Landesbank Luxembourg S.A.
• The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.
• Zürcher Kantonalbank

Arranger: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Ltd.

Lead Manager:

• Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, London Branch
• Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat, Luxembourg
• Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG
• Chang Hwa Commercial Bank, Ltd., London Branch
• Geral de Depósitos, S.A. – Sucursal Financeira Exterior
• DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, Frankfurt am Main
• Landesbank Saar
• WGZ Bank AG Westdeutsche Genossenschafts-Zentralbank

Manager:

• American Express Bank GmbH
• Arbejdernes Landsbank
• BRE Bank SA
• Dresdner Bank AG
• Erste Bank der österreichischen Sparkassen AG
• Mega International Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. Offshore Banking Branch
• National Bank of Egypt (UK) Limited
• Oberbank AG
• Raiffeisenlandesbank Burgenland und Revisionsverband (registrierte Genossenschaft mit beschränkter Haftung)
• Salzburger Landes-Hypothekenbank Aktiengesellschaft
• Sparebanken Øst
• Raiffeisenlandesbank Kärnten
  
• Banco Popolare di Verona e Novara S.c.r.l., London Branch
• Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien AG

America is running out of 000000000000

Today someone on the radio said that "America is running out of zeros".

Wait a minute, I thought... they still have Dubya, Cheney, "Condi" Rice, Paulson, Bernanke and McCain, not to mention at least a dozen others whose names no-one even remembers. So there are plenty of zeros... and they found Sarah Palin as well.

Looking around on the internet I think that a country so full of morons as the USA will never be short of zeros.

But after listening a bit closer I realised that the radio reporter was actually talking about real zeros, as in 0, the number without individual value.
The US government's debts have meanwhile ballooned so badly - he said - that the "National Debt Clock" in New York - yes, such a thing exists, no joke - has run out of digits to record the spiralling figure.

The digital counter marks the national debt level of the entire USA and is updated constantly and electronically through a connected computer.
But when the national debt - thanks to robber baron Bush and his gang - passed the $ 10 trillion (10,000,000,000,000) point last month, the sign could no longer display the full amount. It has simply not enough digit fields!

The board was placed on a wall at New York's famous Times Square in 1989, to highlight the then $ 2.7 trillion level of national debt under the rule of another Bush, the current incumbent's father (and former CIA director) George Herbert Walker Bush.

The clock's owners have said that they will now add two more zeros to the display, allowing it to record even a quadrillion Dollars of debt. (Should McCain be the next President, that is quite a realistic figure to expect...)

Douglas Durst, son of the late Seymour Durst who invented the clock, hopes to have a longer replacement ready early next year. For the time being, the counter's electronic Dollar sign has been replaced with the extra digit required.

Economists believe the $ 700 billion bail-out plan for ailing financial institutions will send the national debt level of the USA to $ 11 trillion soon.

Now, isn't that just the right kind of thing to remember Dubya for...?

Keep your Geese - give us the Money

You don't normally hear much about Iceland. But today it was mentioned twice on the radio, and for totally different reasons. On the news there was an item about Icelandic banks, and later the BBC had a report about wild geese migrating from Iceland to Ireland for the winter.

There is the odd foreigner who mixes Iceland up with Ireland, but not often. Even though the spelling is identical bar one letter, most people know the difference.

For most Irish Iceland is a big lump of volcanic rocks, covered in snow and ice, somewhere up there in the North Atlantic, half-way to Santa's North Pole and close to oddly named Greenland. That's about it. We don't know much more about Iceland, and we don't really care.

By pure chance I happen to know that Icelanders have no surnames and descend directly from the Vikings. But as there are only about 300,000 of them, you would think there is no danger for Ireland. It's more than a thousand years that they came down raiding our monasteries the last time.

But danger these days comes from different threats, and often from unexpected areas. No longer is it the number of people one country can send to invade another that matters. These days it's all about money, the damned stuff that creeps into every element of life now.

I had no idea that there is a bank in Iceland that offers accounts on the internet to everyone willing to deposit his money with them. Now, call me old-fashioned, but I would never do that.
I've never had much time for the banks, even before they began stealing the country's future. But at least there are branch offices I can walk into, with people I can talk to if I am not happy.

An internet bank has none of this. All you have is a website and a code word, and you never have the slightest idea where your money is or what it is doing.
That sort of thing might appeal to some geeks and high-tech computer wizards, but it's definitely not for me. Could never trust a machine completely.

And going by today's news I am quite right with my suspicion. This Icelandic internet bank has just crashed quietly. Yes, websites - in contrast to buildings - make no noise when they collapse. And it appears that anyone who's put his money in there is now left in the lurch.
The government of Iceland has nationalised the banks, to prevent their country from going bankrupt, and foreigners and their deposits don't matter any longer. Well, Vikings were never shy to take other people's goods and money...

One of my students, a real IT geek who even eats in front of his computer, just asked me for 20 Euros to buy some food. He's probably lost all his savings, which he had put into the Icelandic online bank. I gave him fifty and told him to have more common sense in future.

Then I went home, had my tea and listened to the Nature programme on BBC Radio 4. They had a long report about the wild geese from Iceland now migrating to Britain and Ireland for the winter.

Normally I don't mind foreigners coming into our country, and as long as they behave in a decent way, they are quite welcome.
But tonight I have a little message for the Vikings in Iceland: Keep your geese, but give people back the money they deposited in good faith with your bank!

Mooney's Money is a Scam

Normally I don't listen to RTÉ Radio 1 in the afternoon. Like most people I work at that time. But today was an exception. Last week I had ordered coal for the winter, and today they were delivering it to my house. So I took the afternoon off, to be at home when they come.

If you're not there when they bring the coal, they just drop it outside your front door and then you'll have a hell of a dirty work on your hands shifting the stuff into the backyard.

While I was waiting for the coal lorry to arrive, I had the radio on. And so I heard the 'Mooney Show', which is on Radio 1 every weekday afternoon from 3 o'clock to 4.30 pm. It's supposed to be a light bridge between 'Live Line' and 'Drive Time'. Well, it's not too bad, but for my taste too hyped-up on trivialities.

I remember Derek Mooney as a young and eager RTÉ reporter with a special interest in wildlife. In fact I used to watch quite a few of the nice little films that ran as a series, called 'Mooney goes wild on 1'.
I wonder if anyone in RTÉ saw the potential double entendre in that title, as Mooney was probably one of the first gay men the station employed in a prominent position.

But the films were really about animals. All sorts of animals, big and small, common or unusual. It beats me why that series is no longer produced. It was good, clean television, informative, educational and often also entertaining.

Maybe it was just too simple and straight-forward for modern TV, where everything needs to be spun and twisted. So now Mooney is on Radio 1, when he's not presenting one of the tacky game shows RTÉ still runs for the National Lottery. Embarrassing really how people behave on those shows. They would tell psychologists an awful lot about the Irish psyche...

I listened with some interest to the programme, but I was not chaffed by it. Just some bits and pieces to fill 90 minutes of dreary afternoon, mixed together for those who are at home at that time (which are not the most active, productive or critical people).

But there was one element in the show that made me sit up and listen in amazement, which has meanwhile made way to anger. The item is called 'Mooney's Money', and I am told that it is part of the programme every day. It runs like this: Mooney asks a really stupid or dead-easy question, one of those a three-year-old could answer without difficulty.
(I hate such questions, as they are saying two things: We at RTÉ think that our listeners are morons, and we don't care if we insult the intelligence of the few listeners who are not morons.)

Then they urge the listeners to phone or text the studio with the answer, and one winner - yes, just one, and apparently "randomly selected from the correct entries" - is promised a prize of € 1000. So far, so good.
But then comes the catch. "Entries cost € 1," says a sluttish sounding female voice from a tape. And if that were not enough, she adds insult to financial exploitation and explains: "Entries from mobiles cost more."

She doesn't say how much more, even though I think she should. But then again, the whole thing is a scam and made to appeal to morons.
So those who are dumb enough to fall for it and actually do phone or text (which is only possible from mobiles, and they "cost more") in the answer, will be fleeced for a minimum of € 1, and perhaps as much as € 2.50 per entry.
As the question is so easy that there is virtually no chance of a wrong answer, there must be thousands of people trying their 'luck'.

And this is how RTÉ gets the € 1000 prize money each day, and makes plenty of profit from the scam on top of it. So what they are giving away is not 'Mooney's Money', but yours, if you are dumb enough to participate.
If the money would really come from Derek Mooney, it would set him back a quarter of a million Euros in a year. And that would be more than the € 242,408 RTÉ pays him per annum.

No, don't be fooled! 'Mooney's Money' is really your money, and RTÉ makes plenty more from the scam. Yes, that's what it is.
A scam. And I wonder if this sort of thing should be done by our national broadcaster, to which we all pay our annual fee to keep it running. I think it's wrong. In fact it stinks.

When I mentioned it to Sean Fitzpatrick, my philosophical and dear neighbour, last night, he told me that a similar scam is also part of the 'Afternoon Show' on RTÉ 1 television. Same concept, same money.
So this is not just a glitch on Mooney's show. There is system in it.
A system to rob the gullible viewers and listeners who have time in the afternoon of their hard-earned money.

It's bad enough that the banks, the government, the supermarkets, coal merchants and almost everyone else robs us blind every day. Now even RTÉ is joining in. Shame on you, you greedy and ruthless people at Donnybrook! And shame on you, Derek Mooney! I would never have expected such a scam from a man who likes animals.

Capitalism is dead - long live Capitalism!

It seems that my friend Nick was right after all. When I met him yesterday morning, staggering home after a long night on the beer, he told me that the world was going to end soon. Well, at least the world as we have known it for some time.

Today the financial 'markets' - which are in fact really large gambling dens for the super-rich - all over the world have seen another massive collapse of the capitalist system.
Iceland avoided to become a failed state only through a state of emergency and nationalisation of their banks, and many ore countries will go down the same route.

We are fucked. Smashed to pieces by the criminals in Washington and New York!
That they almost destroyed themselves in the process is only a minor compensation.

If you need proof that capitalism is dead, today is the day. The system ruled by money, greed and arrogance is no more.

This should be reason for joy. People should be out in the streets, celebrating. But of course they aren't. Because the corpse of capitalism, not even cold yet, is replaced by - guess what?

More capitalism.

Those we were foolish enough to put in charge of our nations have no imagination, no ideas and no flexibility. All they know is money, and so they think they can solve everything with money.

The state has billions of deficit, so what do we do? We borrow even more billions, to make the deficit larger.

We have learned absolutely nothing from history, behave reckless and irresponsible, and are probably the biggest fools that have ever lived on Earth.

Will we change anything now? Of course not. Capitalism is dead, so long live capitalism!

Welcome to the 21st century, the era of collective mass suicide!

The wrong Sean Fitzpatrick

Do you known a man called Sean Fitzpatrick? I do. He's a neighbour of mine, a retired printer and a bit of a philosopher.
In fact, he's quite good as a philosopher, and often has wisdom beyond his age and even beyond all other people I know around here.
After he retired, he actually went to the college, quietly and without telling anyone, doing a course in Philosophy once a week in the evening. This went on for a couple of years, and now he's a real philosopher and even has a certificate to prove it.
But he's never been on the radio. Not even on our useless local private station that brings three times more tacky ads than information.

So I was surprised and - for a moment - delighted when I heard his name mentioned on RTÉ today. Good on you, Sean, I thought, you've made it after all, and now the nation is listening to you.

But my joy was short-lived. Very soon I realised that the Sean Fitzpatrick RTÉ was talking with was a different man altogether. Not my dear and wise neighbour, but the chairman of Anglo Irish Bank. I had never heard of him before. Did you?
Funny really how certain people whose name is known only to a handful of Dublin 4 insiders get to the top of large companies and institutions and then they control serious elements of our lives.
And in the case of the banks make a right bollocks of it.

But messing up the economy and driving us almost over the cliffs does not mean these people are now shunned, ostracised or sacked. Oh no, they are given plenty of airtime on RTÉ, while those who would have something real to say never even get inside a studio, not even as member of the audience.

So this other Sean Fitzpatrick, the disastrous gambler with our money, has admitted now that his bank - like most other financial institutions - has "made mistakes".
Well, it's a long time since I heard that sort of confession from a money man. But the portion of humble pie he was willing to eat on air was not a large one. He insisted that they had not been reckless. I would disagree with him, and think that history will be with me when the books on the global credit crunch of 2008 are written some day.

The chairman of Anglo Irish Bank - one of the six whose entire operation is now guaranteed 100% by the State (which means really by you and me and all of us, with all our money) - also said he was "grateful for the € 400 billion guarantee scheme introduced by the government".

Well, he'd better be. And he'd better show it to every customer. Arrogant bank managers talking down on customers and patronising them over small loans, late payments or overdrafts should be a thing of the past. They are no longer acceptable and better disappear.

There's not one ordinary bank customer who has ever been as reckless, stupid and arrogant as the men in suits who control the banks. Yes, they have more than enough reason to be grateful to the State, and that means us, the nation. And they better learn to behave like normal people, ordinary folk that has to make ends meet week by week.

It will be a long time before I can trust a bank again, if ever. And I know I'm not alone. Quite the opposite. No-one I know trusts the banks. So perhaps they should be working hard to get their books in order and care for their customers, instead of talking sweetly on RTÉ.

Next time the Donnybrook crowd wants to hear the views of Sean Fitzpatrick, they'd better give my neighbour a call. He'd have a lot more to say than any banker, and it would be much more interesting to listen to.

The new Dollar Bill

After the US Senate passed an amended version of George W. Bush's scandalous bill to acquire the toxic loans and bad debts of Wall Street's scoundrels and gamblers yesterday, the (lower) House of Representatives, which had rejected the first version of the bill, accepted it also today.

This means that now nearly $ 800 billion (substantially more than the originally proposed $ 700 billion) of US taxpayers' money is handed over to super-rich Wall Street gangsters, in exchange for their worthless 'derivatives' which caused the current world financial crisis in the first place.

Shortly after Bush signed the biggest legal theft in history into law, a new One-Dollar bill (see below) was issued by the Federal Reserve. Further new designs of the higher denominations are to follow soon.

Well done, Dubya. Now you managed to rob the ordinary American people of their last shirt, in order to hand billions over to your rich friends and backers.

The Democrats, who foolishly supported the bill, will deeply regret their stupid mistake as soon as the real consequences will become clear. Should Barack Obama win the election in November (and all signs say that he will), he will become the President of a bankrupt country, deeply in hock to the Chinese, who are lending the bail-out money.

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.