Angl Irish Banks Tape

[hollyisalovelyname]

Has anybody else heard them? If so, your opinion please. Am gobsmacked by the arrogance of those bankers.

Haven't heard the tape but I have read about the story.

I don't think anyone should have bailed out their banks, not here, not in Ireland, not in the US. Here we are five years on, and what's changed? The banks are going to need bailing out again soon, so are several countries, but we're now so in debt we can't afford to do it. Incidentally I was always of that opinion. That's the essence of the free market - you fail, you go under.

The bailouts were corporatism. That's big government and big business colluding to shaft the taxpayer. I'm not surprised in the slightest that it happened, in fact I suspected it all along. I'm only surprised that anyone else is surprised, and surprised that this chap was stupid enough to be recorded.

Flatpack do listen. They are unreal!

Irish posters - your thoughts on these tapes please

"I just pulled a figure out of me arse" is what he said when asked how he came up with £7Bn being needed.

Low enough to tempt the Irish government but high enough to seem important. This was when he knew they needed waaaay more than that and that once the government committed to saving the bank they couldn't pull out. These bastards should be in jail.

You couldn't make it up!!!
Their arrogance and contempt for the country and its people are astounding. Unlike the U. K. , U.S. and Iceland nobody will be held accountable
The guys who owe shedloads of money have gone to the U . K. or the U.S. as the bankruptcy laws there are much more lenient. Meanwhile people who are struggling with mortgages were landed with a newly introduced property tax for their negative equity homes on which they may have paid up to 9 percent stamp duty. I despair

You have to ask why this tape has been released now ?
This happened years ago, so why are the public being told about it now and why has it not been released before?

There is a possibility that this will be used as an excuse to stop taxpayer bail outs but force customer bail ins.

The Cyprus precedent may be extended and customer money may be swiped in bail ins of some banks that go belly up due to the incompetent people running them.

"The European Union will today meet to discuss and move forward the proposal to ?bail-in? depositors with savings of more than ?100,000 as part of future bank wind-downs. It now looks likely that the EU is going to take unprecedented steps to sequester monies from its citizens in the event of future bank failures."

...

As it is the Irish that currently hold the EU presidency, this key legislation is being proposed and presented by Ireland?s finance minister, Michael Noonan.

...

Some states have not ruled out the possibility that insured deposits would also be included in the ?bail-in,? a proposition rendered senseless considering that all deposits under ?100,000 are insured.

www.resourceinvestor.com/2013/05/14/european-union-likely-to-bail-in-large-depositors

Have these tapes been released now in order to soften the public up for what is being planned?

Lots of headlines in our newspapers about the tapes, but very little on the EU decision to adopt a bail-in Cypriot style model for rescuing future banks.

"European leaders agreed overnight to establish the bail-in model of Cyprus for future collapses of EU banks."

www.neurope.eu/article/bail-agreement-reached

Holly what really struck me listening to those tapes was just how clueless and bumbling the players were/are. I found myself wondering how these people had made to these top positions, with these huge salaries. It seems like they didn't have a brain cell between them. The macho arrogance was one thing but the sheer witlessness...My belief is that there are many more like them - as in, important decision-makers who in reality are not very intelligent at all - out there. And not just in Ireland.

Sorry that I'm not adding much to the debate but I'm just so flabbergasted by the incompetence.

That is an interesting angle Claig.
Though my feeling is Fine Gael (current party in government) or pro FG elements (get me) have been sitting on this for two or more reasons. To topple Fianna Fail's support (party in gov at bailout time and preceding Tiger Years). They have been steadily rising over the past few months, while FG & junior Coalition party Labour have tumbled. In the last week FF have lost 4% support more or less directly to gov parties.
Secondly, the budget is coming up in October, and they may want to start that merry go round about now. They can wave their big axe around while it's all fresh in our minds who is to blame.

I love love love the fact it's a Paul Williams story. He is Ireland's most famous crime journalist, normally writing about feuding drug gangs. Love the fact that these white collar criminals are put into the same box as ordinary street scumbags, even if only by association.

Faddy Peony - can't remember who said it but it was on the radio this week - 'That's what you get when you put a rugby team in charge of a bank'. Saucer of milk to that man.

yes indeed! How well-observed.

You might well be right about this being FG's trump card. Dying to know more about PW's source. Suspect that it will all come out eventually.

I don't know anything about Irish politics, but it is certainly very interesting. I saw the youtube video of independent socialist Clare Daly's question in Leaders' Questions and we don't see any questioning like that in our Prime Minister's Question Time, which is good entertainment but more of a pantomime.

For anyone who's interested, full coverage is here in the Irish Indo.

Fuck me, I've just seen that David Drumm hasn't even sat his Leaving Certificate (equivalent of UK A-levels).

Clare Daly gets a lot of flak. Bit of a firebrand, bless her.

I like her - great for asking the awkward question.

Clare Daly asking a question on the Anglo Tapes.

The comments below the video show how impressed people are with her trenchant questioning.

Why do we need a new term "bail-in" when there's already a perfectly good one, namely "theft".

I don't know about other posters on this thread but the whole banking crisis and the fact that developers owe massive amounts to the banks (that are now being bailed out by the taxpayer) and will never pay back and / or run away to U.K or U. S.A. has impacted hugely on my life and my family's life. Unemployment, stress etc. Those tapes just make me so angry and upset. And nothing will happen. 30 years ago Bob Geldof sang about Ireland as a banana republic. Absolutely spot on.