Meanwhile, on the Emerald Isle...

[ASH]

An AP story carried by the Washington Post:

Ireland plans massive new bailout for banks

By ROBERT BARR
The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 30, 2010; 1:42 PM

LONDON -- Ireland's government said Tuesday it will help banks raise nearly euro22 billion ($30 billion), much of it from taxpayers, to meet stiff new capital requirements that are part of a plan to resolve the nation's banking crisis.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan also announced terms for the first tranche of transfers of bad loans, around euro16 billion ($21.5 billion) worth, to the new "bad bank" - the National Asset Management Agency.

Discounts, or "haircuts," on the valuation of those loans - ranging from 35 percent for Bank of Ireland to 58 percent for Irish National Building Society - will force the banks to write down billions of losses, Lenihan said.

"The banks will now have to recognize these losses upfront," Lenihan said.

...

This must be what happens when you don't relax mark-to-market rules.

[unlucky]

Re: Meanwhile, on the Emerald Isle...

"The banks will now have to recognize these losses upfront," Lenihan said.

...

This must be what happens when you don't relax mark-to-market rules.

They set up a "bad bank" to warehouse the bad loans, and the staff of the bad bank have spent 6 months going through the banks' assets in detail ... I guess they discovered the assets are not worth very much.

[bcassill]

Re: Meanwhile, on the Emerald Isle...

Oh, the luck of the Irish. Unfortunately, they don't have anything in the way of creativity compared to us Americans. In addition to changes in FASB, we've got all of the 4 letter bailouts (e.g. TARP, TALF, TURD) for the too big to fails. Of course, we now know per Andrew Maguire's revelations of JPM's manipulation of the silver market that it is highly likely that the central banks of the Western economies have been in cahoots with various private interests to suppress precious metals prices as part of a larger effort to give the impression that all is well in the world of finance. Per Larry Summers' (no relation to the Three Stooges which would be an insult) own words:

The fourth position, which Summers calls pragmatic, in his own words, “is the one embraced implicitly, if not explicitly by policymakers in most major economies. It holds that central banks must always do whatever is necessary to preserve the integrity of the financial system regardless of whether those who receive support are solvent or can safely pay a penalty rate. This position concedes that some institutions may become too large to fail. While lender-of-last-resort insurance, like any other type of insurance, will have moral hazard effects, I argue that these may be small when contrasted with the benefits of protecting the real economy from financial disturbances”

So there you have it. We must keep up appearances for appearances sake lest the neighbors notice that the bank is about to foreclose and that the Beamer has been repo'd. Meanwhile, the few well connected insiders continue to rake it in courtesy of the ZIRP discount window.

Larry's precious comment can be found here:

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot...elping-of.html

I also recommend reading Mike Ruppert's Crossing the Rubicon to learn more about how these leeches extract wealth through the destruction of entire national economies.

[Jesse]

Re: Meanwhile, on the Emerald Isle...

did you listen to the Maguire interview on King World News?

WOW.

I am sitting here wondering if the piece that Tavakoli put out was some sort of preemptive thing, knowing what was going to be said on the interview. It seems awfully prescient.

the tape just stunned me. this is one of those moments. Either there is going to be a massive shitstorm, or my heat is going to be broken. Can't seem to win either way. the truth is a harsh mistress.

[aaron]

Re: Meanwhile, on the Emerald Isle...

Either there is going to be a massive shitstorm, or my heat is going to be broken. Can't seem to win either way. the truth is a harsh mistress.

Jesse, for us mere mortals... what do these sentences mean?

[GRG55]

Re: Meanwhile, on the Emerald Isle...

did you listen to the Maguire interview on King World News?

WOW.

I am sitting here wondering if the piece that Tavakoli put out was some sort of preemptive thing, knowing what was going to be said on the interview. It seems awfully prescient.

the tape just stunned me. this is one of those moments. Either there is going to be a massive shitstorm, or my heat is going to be broken. Can't seem to win either way. the truth is a harsh mistress.

I am not optimistic that the mainstream media are going to run with this. I would have thought the Lehman disclosures would have generated more attention, but other than something about the SEC "hunting' for "Lehman style accounting" [does anybody have any confidence in the SEC...and if so, why...:rolleyes:] the issue seems to have gone completely dead.

I see no reason why the same fate would not be visited upon these latest revelations...

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Meanwhile, on the Emerald Isle...

did you listen to the Maguire interview on King World News?

That interview just provides more evidence of a large pile of dynamite, with a lit fuse, sitting next to us. We still don't know how long that fuse is. My guess is that the meanest, strongest dog in the junkyard will determine the length of that fuse, blowing the dynamite and several of the other dogs to kingdom come at a time of its choosing. Meanwhile, stay out of the junkyard. Gold and silver futures, COMEX, LBMA, SLV, GLD, and quite possibly dollars, treasuries, pounds, and gilts could well blow up in one's face. If they do blow, we little people will read about it in the paper the day after (well, hear it on the web, tv or radio, but still too late to get out of the way.)