http://dailyreckoning.com/a-world-of-leaks-and-full-disclosures/
Ireland's premier, Enda Kenny, has appeared to break down under the strain of trying to avoid bankruptcy. He called a press conference yesterday, [March 31] after Anglo-Irish Bank announced losses of more than 17 billion euros - the largest corporate loss in Irish history.
"I think this has gone on long enough. We tried in good faith to save the system from default and to avoid national humiliation. Instead, the situation just grows more humiliating with each passing week.
"It's time we called a spade a spade...and be done with it. We all know the banks are controlled by the English. And we all know English speculators were behind all of Ireland's recent property problems. They drove up prices. They lent money to Irish people. They built houses that were both ugly and unaffordable. And then, when the bottom fell out of the market, they expected Irish taxpayers to make up their losses.
"Well, that's it. That's the end. Henceforth, all banks and all bank assets are to become the property of the Republic of Ireland. Bank premises will be turned into useful resources for the people, such as pubs or pizza parlors.
"If a bank owes you money...you are out of luck. You should have known better than to put your money in a bank anyway. Everyone knows you can't trust them. Especially when the English are involved with them.
"And don't come running to me telling me that Ireland's default will trigger a wave of defaults across Europe...and possibly bring down the euro and the European Union. I don't want to hear it. It was the European Union that got us into this mess. The frogs and the krauts can go f*** themselves."
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Mr. Enda Kenny is not alone in this. Most nations world wide are afflicted with an over educated and under employed surplus of young people, for whom the prospects look uniformly bleak. More than bleak. By 2015 according to expert calculations in the Guardian, every person in the UK will have debts of 77,000 (seventy seven thousand) sterling. No income, quite possibly, but lots of debt.
[The argument in the Guardian for the 77,000 sterling debt per person by 2015 runs as follows: The GB warlords will continue their efforts to match the US and the French et al in helping in various wars. Although Britain lags far behind, for example the US, (which has fired over a hundred missiles at $1 million a time in Libya to the UK's half dozen) participation in these wars is still more expensive than the UK can afford. Like the US, Britain will pay for this by cutting services previously provided to the population. The populace, to preserve its comfort level, will increasingly borrow large sums to pay for services they wish to keep. Whether this scenario plays out in this form is an open question. It is pure guesswork, and may not happen at all. People may well prefer to do without some of the services, or bodge up a home made alternative, for example. Brutal moves on the authorities themselves are also not entertained, on the Japanese Kata principle that anything never mentioned does not exist.]
Mr. Kenny is perfectly correct on Ireland's debts, which are indeed held mostly by the UK.
So go to it, lads and lasses; you have nothing to lose except mountains of unpayable debt.
Not that you’re alone. Japan’s debt has reached the interesting level of 202 percent of GDP, gross domestic product, or over twice as much as everything the entire country produces in a whole year.
That’s without counting the probable effects of its current nuclear problems. All materials that human ingenuity could devise, including wadded up newspapers, have been tried on the wide gash (about a meter) pumping out highly radioactive water to no effect. Tokyo Electric Company that owns the reactor has decided to let it all run into the ocean.
The Washington (and London) commentariat, being political appointees without necessarily having any expertise in anything whatsoever, have also distinguished themselves. Mr. Monbiot of the London Financial Times, for example, announced himself a convert to nuclear power, and no, he wasn’t being sarcastic. He meant it.
The commentariat, or western assembly of experts, have also distinguished themselves in the matter of Ms. Dilma Roussef, the new lady president of Brazil. “Ah now we’ll see a change from old Lula’s policies,” they predicted in unison. Ms. Roussef, who was imprisoned and tortured by the regime preceding that of Mr. Lula da Silva, has proved to be exactly the reverse of their predictions, however, an even tougher nut than da Silva. (Fortunately for our commentators, being entirely wrong has no effect on their employment or remuneration, since they were appointed for political loyalty. They merely continue to serve up the same fine crapola.)
The latest possibility being considered by the Brazilians is quite awe inspiring, no less than the purchase of all of the debts of Portugal, their previous colonial masters. Brazil can easily afford to do that, and it would demonstrate a generous and forgiving attitude that sets them totally apart from western nations, where the almighty power of cash continues to be worshipped.
Nice one, Ms. Roussef!
