I heard a British economist on the radio yesterday! He’s convinced that the Eurozone is likely to fall apart within months, if not weeks! At this stage, I hope his predictions are correct! This man Draghi couldn’t give a toss about Ireland.

You hope the Euzozone is going to fall apart….? Do you not like being able to by food then?

Draghi seriously needs to change his mind on the issues (and Ireland will probably vote No if he doesn’t) but the idea of the whole system collapsing is not a good thing!

Soros: Germany is preparing for the break up of the Euro.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=169546

Wonder what our governments plan B is?

Noddy it would be useful if our government had a plan A as well.

Make no mistake Kerry, they have a plan A. It’s about bailing out their european paymasters at the expense of their own citizens.

From the link above:

Mr Soros also said Europe’s so-called fiscal compact “cannot possibly work” because highly indebted nations will either choose not to meet its tougher fiscal rules or, by doing so, trigger collapsing demand.

“Either way, debt ratios will rise and the competitiveness gap with Germany will widen,” he said.

What do people expect when Goldman Sachs is running Europe?

What does not play ball mean specifically? How can we hurt “them”?

The IMF??? The IMF have come out and stated that the ECB should do a deal on the Anglo debt.

There certainly is an element of that. A certain FF minister (not McCreevy or Cowen) fell asleep a few years ago at an EU meeting, been out celebrating the night before. The other Ministers and EU officials took it very bad. Lot of bad blood for Ireland due to things like that.

Ultimately though they are looking after themselves and if that means burning all but the core to the ground then so be it.

I think that’s nonsense, to be honest. The Greek government actually told lies about the size of their debts (with the help of some ‘creative accounting’ tips from Goldman Sachs, funnily enough) to get into the euro, so they should have more reason to hold a grudge against them.
The reason they are being so tough on us is because, while the Greek people have kicked up a massive fuss and put pressure on their government, there hasn’t been so much as a peep out of the ‘Fighting Irish’. If Irish people and their government seem to be quietly accepting getting swindled, why would the EU/ECB do anything different?

Which parts of my statement is drawing the thumbs down?

I’ll have a guess. The Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes are not the debts of Irish citizens and are nothing to do with any previous funding from the european “cookie jar”. This has nothing to do with money borrowed from the ECB in good faith, and everything to do with bailing out european banks.

Thanks Noddy, I agree it’s all about banks, they are those that went to the cookie jar. However, Because so many banks got into the shit, the gov on behalf of the Irish people nationalised Anglo. Having done so the debts to foreign banks became the states. Unless we accept this reality and move on, we will not see a clear way forward. With clarity, we can make decisions. We will be in trouble for many years to come and need to consider the options around staying here and putting up with austerity or seeking greener pastures abroad. No use staying on the assumption that the ECB will soften up.

The way things are going the ECB may not even exist within one to two years and this Fiscal Tampax Treaty will be dead with it.

@ Terry: The gov did not ‘on behalf of the Irish people’ nationalise Anglo, they were ordered to do so by the ECB as they contended a european bank failing could cause a systemic crisis, especially anglo that owed huge amounts of money to other major european banks. The government had neither the mandate or support of the irish people and did not act on our behalf by any stretch of the imagination. If they were acting on our behalf, wheres the transcripts of the meetings between cowen, lenihan and the bankers, and why is nama, the bailout for developers, not subject to the freedom of information act?

Terry, damn right the ECB wont soften up. And every day I find it harder to justify living in this otherwise wonderful country. But if our government toughened up and refused to bailout european financial institutes at our expense I for one, and many like me, would be more than happy to stay and take the hardship (however tough that may be) for our future generations’ independence. And it’s a shocking and disgusting truth that almost all of our entire political establishment have neither the courage nor the integrity do the same.

The whole comment is getting the thumbs down. You’re being defeatist, not to mention the fact that following the orders of your purported “masters” in the ECB won’t actually lead to a successful outcome for anyone.

Recent comments from Soros – link is above:

Mr Soros also said Europe’s so-called fiscal compact “cannot possibly work” because highly indebted nations will either choose not to meet its tougher fiscal rules or, by doing so, trigger collapsing demand.

“Either way, debt ratios will rise and the competitiveness gap with Germany will widen,” he said.

Have you seen this:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/steve-keen-europes-delusion-and-why-entire-world-turning-japanese

Re censored comments, as you seem to considered you know something about this topic, please say who outside of Ireland will be hurt if there is a no vote in the coming referendum. Regarding my so called defeatism, the “battle” took place during the Maastricht treaty according to the link you referred to. There is no ism about it. Either we have bargaining chips or we do not? What chips do we have, I’d loved to be convinced we have some.

I don’t believe we have any bargaining chips, I don’t think there’s anything to bargain for. I think the Eurozone is finished and we shouldn’t be kidding ourselves any longer. Time to move on and pick up the pieces.

Good idea Paul, pardon my ignorance but according to your scenario what happens to the prom notes? This is what we are discussing bargaining about.

Terry the funding for the promissory notes originated as seignorised funds from the Irish Central Bank. If it’s not repaid no-ones out of pocket. The ECB is insisting it’s repaid because they don’t want to set a precedent that will have an inflationary impact. In other words it dates back to a time when they enforced tight monetary policy and before they flooded the markets with €1 trillion of seignorised funds.
Soros makes mention of the likely difficulty creditor central banks will have making claims against debtors when the Eurozone collapses. Which he claims Germany is instigating.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=169546