Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
The Irish central bank and Ireland in general did not really regulate its own banks. Your theory that that was somehow the responsibility of other regulators to regulate Irish banks let's your neoliberal irish friends of thew hook.

I grant you that the Irish Central Bank failed to regulate its banks. Most likely regulatory capture. But there are two sides to every loan. When the Irish real estate bubble popped there were lots of foreign banks that were owed money. These banks also had an obligation to perform due diligence when making the loan. That they did is laughable. So they and their regulators also bear responsibility. But, especially in Germany, the attitude is that this is all the fault of a bunch of irresponsible banks in peripheral countries - the German version of evil foreigners.

I advocate a fair sharing of responsibility where each party takes a haircut. You advocate having only the evil foreigners take the haircut. Granted my position is unhelpful to German, British and other creditors and their agents in the guise of the ECB and BOE. Were all oxen to be gored perhaps there would be an incentive to construct a fairer and more balanced system that serves the purposes of more than just the elites in Germany.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Fri Feb 4th, 2011 at 05:29:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
As I said, two years or so to late. All foreign banks have as far as possible left town, leaving the Irish government - NAMA and so on and the ECB holding the bag. But of course most Irish private capital has fled these banks too.

And now you have this cunning plan that foreign holders of Irish government bonds are unworthy and  domestic holders are worthy. That is fine as as far defending the interest of the Irish elite goes, but why is that now suddenly a pan-european progressive project?  

by IM on Fri Feb 4th, 2011 at 05:39:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
How about all depositors, whatever their nationality, get saved up to a certain amount (say 100k to be ridiculously generous). Then you save as many of the rest as you can in some order that derives from whatever your strategic bargaining plan is as Jake outlined.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake
by talos (mihalis at gmail dot com) on Fri Feb 4th, 2011 at 06:02:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
There have been suggestions that Ireland doesn't even have enough money to guarantee all deposits up to 100k. I find that hard to believe, but it's within the realm of possibility, given what we've seen worldwide in the last 3 1/2 years.

Keynesianism is intellectually hard, as evidenced by the inability of many trained economists to get it - Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Feb 4th, 2011 at 06:10:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
And now you have this cunning plan that foreign holders of Irish government bonds are unworthy and  domestic holders are worthy.

Far from it! I advocate and support claw-backs from all involved in this debacle. Every cent obtained by executives and board members and all income received by politicians and regulators regardless of how it has been sequestered in property, trusts, etc. This should apply to all profiting from these banks, Irish, British, German, etc.

We need to return private banking to the days of unlimited personal responsibility of the bankers for the solvency of their institutions. The state can clean up damage to others, but should see that the full burden of fiascoes fall on the bankers themselves. Current policy is the exact opposite. That is the core problem.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat Feb 5th, 2011 at 04:43:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:

Occasional Series