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Ireland: For sale, cheap...
Topic Started: Aug 1 2010, 10:46 PM (345 Views)
LTC8K6
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http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ireland/100726/ireland-economy-sale

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DUBLIN, Ireland ─ Like to buy a nice new airport? No? How about a railway network or a power station? Well then, wouldn't you like to have a bus company, or a harbor, or a television service or a chain of post offices?

Anyone of these properties could be yours; all reasonable offers considered. They are slated to come under the auctioneer’s hammer in a fire sale of national assets in Ireland.

Like a household up to its ears in debt, the Irish government is planning to sell off the family silver to make ends meet.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan appointed a commission on July 22 to look at the possibility of unloading these assets to help meet Ireland’s crippling national debt of 84 billion euros ($108 billion). The planned sale is an indication of how desperate the financial situation has become since the Irish property bubble burst three years ago.

A nation listed the as the sixth richest non-oil country in the world by Standard & Poor has seen a sharp decline in wealth and economic activity. Tax revenues have collapsed and the government is struggling to keep its controversial pledge of two years ago to bail out the country’s banks, which are floundering under the weight of reckless loans.

This has created a black hole into which tens of billions of euros are disappearing. The worst offender, Anglo Irish bank, is in the process of transferring loans with a nominal value of 35.6 billion euros ($45.5 billion) to Ireland’s “bad bank,” the National Asset Management Agency, known as “Nama.”

Irish Property developers — until recently members of the world’s rich set — are now saddled with immense debts, such as Dublin-based Paddy Kelly who was worth 350 million euros ($455 million) in 2007 and now owes 350 million euros.
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Baldo
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...Ireland endured one of the worst recessions of any developed economy since the Great Depression. The country’s economy shrank by 10 percent in the last two years, their financial system came close to collapse and unemployment surged to a 15-year high.

In response to the crisis, the Irish government injected 7 billion euros ($8.6 billion US dollars) into the country’s two biggest banks and set up another bank to buy toxic real-estate loans. In 2008, the government raised a sales tax, introduced an income levy and cut public workers’ pay by an average of 13 percent....snipped

http://www.globalwarmingisreal.com/blog/2010/06/02/ireland-greece-and-the-green-economy/


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LTC8K6
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http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-sheriffs-seizing-assets-in-record-numbers--99616734.html
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foxglove

It wasn't too long ago that Ireland's economy was called the Irish tiger. How did it go from boom to bust?

We see over and over how debt, individual or governmental, leads to the necessity of selling things off at firesale prices. Irish railroads and airports are for sale. Greek islands are for sale. Going back in history, I read that The Washinton Post was bought by Eugene Meyer at a firesale price during the Depression.

Does governmental debt come from foolish risk-taking or are there psychological enticements to debt? Who wins and who loses in this situation. There could be a whole course devoted to this subject.
Edited by foxglove, Aug 2 2010, 06:20 AM.
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cks
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foxglove
Aug 2 2010, 06:19 AM
It wasn't too long ago that Ireland's economy was called the Irish tiger. How did it go from boom to bust?

We see over and over how debt, individual or governmental, leads to the necessity of selling things off at firesale prices. Irish railroads and airports are for sale. Greek islands are for sale. Going back in history, I read that The Washinton Post was bought by Eugene Meyer at a firesale price during the Depression.

Does governmental debt come from foolish risk-taking or are there psychological enticements to debt? Who wins and who loses in this situation. There could be a whole course devoted to this subject.
I think it is one thing for private companies to go for a song at a firesale. It is quite another when a government sells off pieces of its operating systems. However, if anything, it is further reason why socialism does not work and why transportation, etc. should be in private hands rather than under government control where government bureaucracy allows for a bloating of personnel and there is no real incentive to cut costs and improve services.
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Baldo
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We simply have had the economic engines in the hands of the special interests for far too long.

What we have now is an unholy alliance of Govt and special interests who have their own best interests at heart. Whether they be Wall Street Banks, the Fed, Unions, major corporations, or the Political parties the politicians are like prostitutes who get paid to screw you and leave you will a SID. This is true in Greece, Ireland, and the USA

The Tea Party is a hope not because they are some party, but because they are not. Last weekend I was at a memorial service with a friend who is a political operative and has worked on some large campaigns including a major Tea Party event. He affirmed what I thought, the Tea Party movement isn't some national campaign, but many individual local groups of citizens who are upset. He said they can't control it and it is truly a grassroots movement. That is what scares the Pols. Nobody can control the hordes of angry voters. He has hopes it will continue to grow and we the people will take back our country.


The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.
George Washington


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