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Newsweek ranks Brian Cowen among world's best leaders
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must be getting him mixed up with the other Brain Cowen0
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Again! This should really go to his head and get him off the toilrt seat...0
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Bertie was always ranked highly on these stupid types of lists also.
Maybe if Cowen follows Berties lead & tells the doomsayers to go commit suicide he'll climb a few places :rolleyes:0 -
Unpopular thread is unpopular.
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Brian Lenihan is doing all the good work.....
Brian Cowen got good marks for the government making the hard decisions.
Eamon Gilmore, popular in Ireland for opposing what Newsweek and the international community appreciate.
The problem is the Greens and their stupid policies.0 -
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Being the first piece of turd to float to the surface isn't really something worth noting.0
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I'm sure the whoever made that list couldn't give a fcuk about what's going on in Ireland, so they just put Cowen on the list to be nice. If they really knew what Cowen was like, he wouldn't be there.0
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Newsweek, didnt they rate George Bush? Nuff said!
All grand from the outside looking in lads, try living here with Brian at the helm and see if he makes the cut then.0 -
All grand from the outside looking in lads, try living here with Brian at the helm and see if he makes the cut then.
...and that's the thing....if you're looking at all this from the perspective of Wall St and the general capitalist view, of course Cowen/Lenihans' measures look like world beaters...the bond holders who are reaping the rewards of the Anglo-Irish bailout and counting the hundreds of millions (nay tens of billions) of current and future Irish tax revenue being exported off to foreign bond markets.
Of course they (Newsweek and more importantly, it's readership) will cheerlead fiscal behaviour of this type....if our politicians had said, screw you bond holders, you're getting nothing (as problematic as that may have become), do you think Wall St Journal and the rest of the financial press would be singing Brian's praises? Like f*ck they would...he'd be a modern day financial Hitler or Pol Pot or soemthing...0 -
But he is brilliant. If you ignore all the stuff that he did before the recession to help cause it.0
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...if our politicians had said, screw you bond holders, you're getting nothing (as problematic as that may have become), do you think Wall St Journal and the rest of the financial press would be singing Brian's praises? Like f*ck they would...he'd be a modern day financial Hitler or Pol Pot or soemthing...
Yes, and we'd be a modern day Armenia
We need to keep this country running.
We need to keep encouraging inward investmant.
Capitalism is apparently a dirty word to some people.
Where do you think money comes from?
I think it was some arsewipe in Sinn Feinn that said People are what makes an economy great - or words to that effect.. well Ethopia is full of people, but they dont have much of an economy.
Its government policy that makes a sucessful working economy. Its implementing of structures for the people to create the wealth of the nation from taxation created by business men and women.
Wheather you like Brian Cowen or not, is one thing, he has the carisma of a old roll of carpet and the people skills of a serial rapist.. but the reality is he is a good politician and a smart man.. personally i dont like him or loath him, ive no particular opinion on him.0 -
Yes, and we'd be a modern day Armenia
We need to keep this country running.
We need to keep encouraging inward investmant.
Capitalism is apparently a dirty word to some people.
Where do you think money comes from?
I think it was some arsewipe in Sinn Feinn that said People are what makes an economy great - or words to that effect.. well Ethopia is full of people, but they dont have much of an economy.
Its government policy that makes a sucessful working economy. Its implementing of structures for the people to create the wealth of the nation from taxation created by business men and women.
Wheather you like Brian Cowen or not, is one thing, he has the carisma of a old roll of carpet and the people skills of a serial rapist.. but the reality is he is a good politician and a smart man.. personally i dont like him or loath him, ive no particular opinion on him.
We've only put off the inevitable re modern day Armenia. We overtook Greece yesterday. Short of hitting oil off the south coast, or the goldrush in Clontibret, we're pretty f*cked if you look at it objectively
Encouraging inward investment? Into what? The smart economy? Call centres? You like many others don't seem to get that we (the country) have been like a junkie the last decade, high as a kite on easy credit, all patting each other on the back for being so rich, when it was all on paper.
Over that time, where did our indigenous export economy go? What little of it there was that wasn't foreign multinationals using us as a clearing house for their taxable profits, became uncomptetitve due to a spike in running costs contributed to by a bloated public service, unreasonable demands by unions (both private and public sector) and a myriad of new consumption taxes.
Where does the money come from....that's a great question Snyper...I'll tell you where it doesn't come from, from the actions of politicians...they only know how to spend it when it's coming in and how to grab more of it when it's not. Of course policy can dictate the success of an economy and allow it to grow or wither...but it's business men and those who are willing to work that really drive that home, along with confidence and external factors. FF-ers will take credit for the past boom all day long...in reality it was the emergence of the Euro currency along side the buoyancy in world markets and historically low interest rates at the turn of the millenium (that itself inspired confidence) that made the boom happen...we all just happened to be in the right place at the right time...ironically a place that has become the wrong one at the wrong time...
Now that the time has come to sober up, it turns out we've run up a considerable bill for our "drugs" (houses, credit cards, cars, other imported consumables), a bill that is now being paid in the form of the future wellbeing of our citizens....that isn't really the fault of Brian Cowen alone, no, but as leader of the current legislative and as minister for finance during the crucial time of the late noughties, he has to shoulder a lot of the blame. To call him a great leader is delusional in my eyes (and like you I hold no real personal opinion of the man)...Bertie or CJ were great leaders too....but look at the sh*t they got up to...
Cowen may be a smart man (he doesn't let it show enough) he may be popular (somewhere), and he may well be a good politician (whatever that is), but he isn't a leader in any true sense of the word...0 -
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The thing is you can see what he's doing is right bumping taxes and all that - but it's because he's doing it and it's affecting us that we hate him....
and the fact that it's his party that caused the mess in the first place doesn't help him at all now....
it has to be done like - what would anyone else do in his situation - lower taxes :rolleyes:
I dislike finna fail - but cowen/lehihan is doing what has to be done i suppose - pity it's cutting into the country so hard is all0 -
Picked by a bunch of highly paid people totaly insulated from the harsh realities the rest of us have to endure..............I am not impressed:rolleyes:0
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Join Date:Posts: 10277
man you people love to wallow in self pity, blame the government, blame the banks, maybe blame yourselves, the only people really in trouble are the numpties who bought their 2 bed apartments for 900k, I chuckle when i see people coming out of those apartments, and wonder how they mange to open doors with that level of utter stupidity0 -
Encouraging inward investment? Into what? The smart economy? Call centres? You like many others don't seem to get that we (the country) have been like a junkie the last decade, high as a kite on easy credit, all patting each other on the back for being so rich, when it was all on paper.
Over that time, where did our indigenous export economy go? What little of it there was that wasn't foreign multinationals using us as a clearing house for their taxable profits, became uncomptetitve due to a spike in running costs contributed to by a bloated public service, unreasonable demands by unions (both private and public sector) and a myriad of new consumption taxes.
d...
C'omon please, calling them clearing houses and claiming that they are a waste to us is been abolutely unreasonalbe.. yes they use us.. we use them, we still hace 10's of thousands of JOBS with foreign multinationals in this country. The tax on their profits we dont receive is less important than the jobs they providewe all just happened to be in the right place at the right time...ironically a place that has become the wrong one at the wrong time...
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Seriously, you're a smart man, you think its all about being at the right place at the right time? Nobody deserves any cedit? Yet when things take a downturn heads are being looked for? If Gerry Adams was the leader of the country for the last 15 years we wouldnt have to worry abot an economic downturn, we would have been well used to it by now.Bertie or CJ were great leaders too....but look at the sh*t they got up to...
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Do you want my honest opinion on that? I dont care who the leader was, whether it be CJ or a labour leader, i dont care it he had whores and snorted coke off hs kitched table every morning once he made good decisions for the country as a leader.. Id rather that than some sandle wearing tree hugger with a utopian agenda making bull**** decisions running the country0 -
There are calls on this thread for people to take collective responsibility and admit that we were at fault for this mess - buying overpriced houses, having multiple credit cards, living off debt and so on. Be that as it may, the responsibility for this must fall across the board, specifically it must not avoid people who had a larger hand to play than others.
People who were in charge of financial institutions, who lead them to debts of billions of euros, being let go with a golden handshake, after years of high wages - they are not feeling the pinch.
The strange and unusual dealings between Anglo Irish and Irish Life and Permanent were never fully investigated and people have not been brought to court.
Members of the government who kept telling people that it was never a better time to buy, that houses can only keep increasing in price, despite warnings (and strong warnings at that) from reputable international organisations that we were facing a problem with housing. Ignoring the numbers of empty houses that are in the country and allowing planning for more to be granted. How many of these people do you think are having to tighten their belts?
The good times are over, nobody is questioning that. But a large percentage of the workforce are now receiving lower wages, are in negative equity, in danger of, or have already lost their job - they have a right to question why people at higher levels, those who were leading the country and the financial institutions are not taking responsibility financially (yeah, there were a few levies imposed, and TDs took a little pay cut) when the average Joe and Jane Soap are.
In terms of Clowen being a good leader, what has he really done? Surely most of the financial decisions, the austerity measures, fall on the head of the Minister of Finance? A real leader would have ensured that investigations into the operations of the banks and other financial institutions were completed rapidly and thoroughly; that fraudulent transations were punished; would not have allowed pay increases in the banking sector even if there is 'more work to do' this year, never mind taking on the advice of respected people in their fields instead of dismissing it.0 -
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C'omon please, calling them clearing houses and claiming that they are a waste to us is been abolutely unreasonalbe.. yes they use us.. we use them, we still hace 10's of thousands of JOBS with foreign multinationals in this country. The tax on their profits we dont receive is less important than the jobs they provide
Okay I was a bit flippant there but I'm trying to make a wider point, that being that our position as this "small open economy" leaves us at the mercy of wider economic issues that we have very little control over. The main reason US (and other) multinationals are here is that we're a relatively well educated workforce within the only english speaking country that operates within the €, and of course the corporate tax rate...
Now instead of trying to diversify and become slightly more self sufficient (as a country and an island nation) we have lain back and thought that foreign companys are the be all and end all, and that anyone that can't work for them can just build houses or something and everyone will be fine. Our only real indiginous export is the agri food sector, which is being badly damaged by our wage competitveness.
Of course jobs are important, more so than the tax those companies pay...but again our competitiveness has dwindled due to wage hikes, a perceived drop in our image as a good place to do business etc...if/when those jobs go, what replaces them? We've been sucking at the tit of FDI for so long we don't know what else to do with ourselves bar selling each other property or financial products...no one MAKES anything anymore... our main export seems to be a river of students, educated at our expense, to be integrated into some other country's workforces, all the while we have an isatiable appetite for imported consumables.Snyper wrote:Seriously, you're a smart man, you think its all about being at the right place at the right time? Nobody deserves any cedit? Yet when things take a downturn heads are being looked for? If Gerry Adams was the leader of the country for the last 15 years we wouldnt have to worry abot an economic downturn, we would have been well used to it by now.
Credit where credit's due...but as far as I'm concerned, credit is not due to the majority of those that would and have taken credit for the boom years, within the political parties (and I'm not just talking about FF here)...we are or were the benefactors of a wide set of circumstances, many which were beyond our control...a happy accident...fair enough, we'd positioned ourselves in such a way that when the world turned that we'd benefit....but the boom was blown. Heads are being looked for because most normal people can't see why everyhting went from being top of the list to bottom of the pile in the space of 2 yrs, they're looking for soemthing to blame and I'm afraid part of that blame simply has to lie with those who were in the wheelhouse when we hit the iceberg.
Your point about Adams is null...no-one in their riught mind would vote for that c*nt in the south. There are those that would argue that perhaps no boom would have been better than a huge climb to an economic precipice followed by a swandive into the depths of depression.
Wow, so much anger., I don't want the greens in power any more than you do. Ironically the guy with the coke and hookers is probably a better leader than the sandle wearing hippy. What we have is somewhere between the two...a mediocre man, not especially good looking, nor well spoken, no real charisma to speak of....this thread is about how good a leader someone (Cowen) is....I don't think he rises to any of those marks....the fact that himself and his cabinet have no choice but to make these tough decisions on cuts, taxation, bank bailouts etc, doesn't mean that he is some great visionary demigod, but that he is as much a victim of economic circumstance as any of the rest of us (just like during the boom years).Snyper wrote:Do you want my honest opinion on that? I dont care who the leader was, whether it be CJ or a labour leader, i dont care it he had whores and snorted coke off hs kitched table every morning once he made good decisions for the country as a leader.. Id rather that than some sandle wearing tree hugger with a utopian agenda making bull**** decisions running the country0 -
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people starting to respond to that article in news week, log in and let them know what an idiotic article it is....
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/16/g...ian-cowen.html0 -
Okay I was a bit flippant there but I'm trying to make a wider point, that being that our position as this "small open economy" leaves us at the mercy of wider economic issues that we have very little control over. The main reason US (and other) multinationals are here is that we're a relatively well educated workforce within the only english speaking country that operates within the €, and of course the corporate tax rate...
Now instead of trying to diversify and become slightly more self sufficient (as a country and an island nation) we have lain back and thought that foreign companys are the be all and end all, and that anyone that can't work for them can just build houses or something and everyone will be fine. Our only real indiginous export is the agri food sector, which is being badly damaged by our wage competitveness.
Of course jobs are important, more so than the tax those companies pay...but again our competitiveness has dwindled due to wage hikes, a perceived drop in our image as a good place to do business etc...if/when those jobs go, what replaces them? We've been sucking at the tit of FDI for so long we don't know what else to do with ourselves bar selling each other property or financial products...no one MAKES anything anymore... our main export seems to be a river of students, educated at our expense, to be integrated into some other country's workforces, all the while we have an isatiable appetite for imported consumables.
I dont disagree with much of that at all, and yes i do part some of our sifficulties in responding to the global economic crisis to this, we put too many of our eggs in one basket, we did allow ourselves to take wage increases, i didnt hear anyone complain.. i know i didnt. The above statement by you is what is called constructive and rational critisism.. sadly lacking in many of the arguements on AH and the joe duffy show
Your point about Adams is null...no-one in their riught mind would vote for that c*nt in the south. There are those that would argue that perhaps no boom would have been better than a huge climb to an economic precipice followed by a swandive into the depths of depression.
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True, but there still are some that vote for him
There have been benefits of the boom, ive benefited, i used the boom to save money and then use it rationally. I had the forethought of this day comming, its ashame more didnt. Blame the banks if you wish, i dont, i blame the regulator - banks operate to make money - the regulator failed to stop the insaine practices.
We have alot of infrastructure that was built on the back of the boom...roads, new hospitals including all the private projects, i dont know if you know athlone, i lived here all my life, its a different town now than it was 20 years ago... its a much better town.
Wow, so much anger., I don't want the greens in power any more than you do. Ironically the guy with the coke and hookers is probably a better leader than the sandle wearing hippy. What we have is somewhere between the two...a mediocre man, not especially good looking, nor well spoken, no real charisma to speak of....this thread is about how good a leader someone (Cowen) is....I don't think he rises to any of those marks....the fact that himself and his cabinet have no choice but to make these tough decisions on cuts, taxation, bank bailouts etc, doesn't mean that he is some great visionary demigod, but that he is as much a victim of economic circumstance as any of the rest of us (just like during the boom years).
No, no anger, it was at this point i was being flippant to make a point, yes i agree again with alot of what you say, but i would somewhat disagree with you about him been a good leader.. i dont think hes great, but he has to make cuts, its making the right ones that matter.. the country needs to keep running, no cuts are easy, but making the ones that will lessen the blow is what matters. Its a matter of opinion what cuts are good and bad..
Time will tell0 -
The thing is you can see what he's doing is right bumping taxes and all that - but it's because he's doing it and it's affecting us that we hate him....
and the fact that it's his party that caused the mess in the first place doesn't help him at all now....
it has to be done like - what would anyone else do in his situation - lower taxes :rolleyes:
I dislike finna fail - but cowen/lehihan is doing what has to be done i suppose - pity it's cutting into the country so hard is all
Its not that FF are making the right decisions, its just that they have left themselves with only a few options now that they decided to go the NAMA/**** everyone but our bank friends route. Any possibility of saving money through nationalisation or a good bank/bad bank or even an accurate valuation of the amount that should be paid for the debts being bought has been ****ed out the window. Consequently any slim possibility of promoting business or private spending have been trashed. They haven't done the right thing, they've done the only thing possible after a long series of terrible decisions.0 -
Wertz
You said it all in the most simple, direct and insightful manner possible.
Our government let our native manufacturing and export industries die to support a boom built on cheap credit from a rotten, unregulated banking system, drivenby their crony developers.
We are left with ghost estates, empty hotels, black hole banks, no jobs and NAMA.
Yea, Cowen and his gang did us good.0 -
LukeQuietus wrote: »Might as well be the first to reply.
Cowen isn't to blame. We are...
Really?
http://www.irishcentral.com/business/Cowen-blamed-for-Irish-banking-crisis-in-two-devastating-reports-95949824.htmlTwo "devastating" reports into Ireland's banking crisis single out Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen for blame.
The two reports accuse Cowen of overheating the economy and failing to deflate the property bubble when he was Finance Minister.
One report is from Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan and focuses on the failure of the regulatory bodies while the second is from global banking experts Klaus Regling and Max Watson and examines the effects of Irish policies.
Senior coalition sources told the Irish Independent that the reports were "devastating".
The reports also single out bank directors for doing little or nothing as the crisis began and also targets the Financial Regulator for being too lax.
The reports say that the Central Bank should have acted to stablize the banking system and crucially finds that several organizations made utterly inaccurate economic projections.
They point out that even as late as 2008, highly respected bodies such as the OECD, IMF, and ESRI were all predicting a soft landing for the Irish economy.
The reports also question why the Irish Government treated the property-related income as permanent when it was clear that such huge gains could only be temporary.
In addition, the reports attack bank directors for their inability to prevent such a vast financial crisis and questions why no internal red flags were ever raised.
Honohan says: "At no point throughout the period did the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland staff believe that any of the (banking) institutions were facing any underlying difficulties, let alone potential insolvency problems -- even at a late stage as the crisis neared."
The reports also target the new banking regulation which were introduced by the Fianna Fail-led Government in 2003 as a major player in the banking crisis.
Regling says: "The twin-headed bank regulatory framework in Ireland from 2003 onwards was a hybrid, by global standards.
Or:
* http://www.independent.ie/national-news/cowen-blamed-as-recession-looms-1258782.html
* http://www.herald.ie/national-news/cowen-will-be-blamed-for-financial-meltdown-2212828.html
* http://www.independent.ie/national-news/cowen-blamed-for-catastrophe-2214661.html
As posted on Politics.ie:Originally Posted by TommyO'Brien View Post
The reports are absolutely devastating.
Their key conclusion is a simple one - we are facing a home grown crisis. Yes there is an international dimension, but even without Lehman two Irish banks were entirely screwed. That is a vital fact. It blows out of the water the claim that "if only Lehman's hadn't happened, we would have been OK and have had a soft landing." The reports say absolutely not. Lehman's only brought forward a crisis we were going to face anyway. Anglo was a zombie bank. It was screwed already.
The key point is that all the internal parts to the crisis centre on one thing, the government, and one man, Brian Cowen.
The regulation system failed. It was established by the government, appointed by government, operated on rules set by government, and adopted a light touch regulation promoted by government.
The banks failed. The Government failed to ensure adequate independent analysis was being done, and in effect gave banks cart blanche to do what they wanted, with the government setting the legal structures (the lax legal structures) that banks in the Celtic Tiger were allowed to operate.
The taxation system made a crisis into a catastrophe. Brian Cowen designed the strategy that was followed by the government. He decided on the reliance on income from development. He decided to move large chunks of taxpayers out of the tax net, and bragged about it repeatedly in the Dáil. He left the state's fiscal status entirely reliant on a source of income that was transient and could disappear very quickly if development slowed down. Cowen decided to ramp up spending massively without ensuring there would be a constant income source to pay for it.
http://www.politics.ie/economy/131289-cowen-blamed-fuelling-banking-meltdown-banking-reports-irish-independent-16.html
...And Yes, the dozy complacent sheep of this country are getting what they get because they won't get up off their arses to do something to change what they are getting!
Simple as that.0 -
dear god delete that post quick before the boards vultures see it and rip you to pieces!!
do you not know the boards equation?
government = bad
I see what you mean.
Most people here think they know why the goverment is so S**t,
If there so bright why don't they set up there own Party (call it 'boards for you') and take over.
Personally i wouldn't want to do the job.
If i have a problem with the goverment, i'll sort it at the ballot box.0 -
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I dont disagree with much of that at all, and yes i do part some of our sifficulties in responding to the global economic crisis to this, we put too many of our eggs in one basket, we did allow ourselves to take wage increases, i didnt hear anyone complain.. i know i didnt. The above statement by you is what is called constructive and rational critisism.. sadly lacking in many of the arguements on AH and the joe duffy show
I didn't either to be fair...I just got on with my job as did others, if a payrise came, it came...I left the thinking to the highly paid people that were placed in power through our democratic system. That these same people and their legion of advisors and consultants hadn't the basic foresight to even consider some of the bad places the policymaking could or would take us, underlines the ineptitude of the majority of politicians and, more importantly, senior ranked civil servants (the ones with the real power) and further shows that we had and have no real leadership in this country, merely a bunch of people who roll with the punches.
AH and liveline don't lend themselves to proper critical debate really....most people who contribute can only see part of the picture, may not have a good grip on certain aspects of where we've gone so wrong and are garnering much of their information from dumbed down media....that buzzwords and generalisations (bankers/developers/NAMA) come to the fore is no surprise really and on liveline at least people have a short space of time in which to make a point and can be easily distracted by JD. Anger and an inability to express that anger constructively doesn't help either.Snyper wrote:True, but there still are some that vote for him
Hell I've voted SF myself on occasion (and greens too for that matter, he didn't get in though) and if I'm honest I probably would again, if only for the fact that I see no alternative among mainstream parties, including labour. Adams and Mc Guiness don't help their partys cause in the south.
You can't really blame people who vote for SF....realistically they'll never achieve the level of power necessary in the dáil to do any damage....always a good party to have in opposition though, however distasteful you find them...they do tend to bring a different angle to certain issues and the dáil needs that IMO.Snyper wrote:There have been benefits of the boom, ive benefited, i used the boom to save money and then use it rationally. I had the forethought of this day comming, its ashame more didnt. Blame the banks if you wish, i dont, i blame the regulator - banks operate to make money - the regulator failed to stop the insaine practices.
I benefitted myself, I'd be lying if I said otherwise.
I didn't make a fortune from property (never owned any and sure as hell wasn't paying 10+yrs salary over for a cardboard house). I worked hard and I saved some earnings knowing that it couldn't last forever (again if myself and yourself could see this, the average worker, why couldn't actuarial staff at the dept of finance?) and I'm thankful every day I did; if it weren't for them I'd be royally screwed.
I do blame some borrowers, people who lied on mortgage apps, idiots that went the BTL route with only average salarys to fall back on, those that stretched themselves for the house they simply had to have (although you can't blame simple working folk for thinking they can afford a starter home) anyone that spent like mad on a credit card or remortgaged to "release equity" at high market values.... but like you I think failure in regulation and oversight into the banks has a lot to answer for...again fiscal and tax policy, especially from 06/07 simply added fuel to the fire of the eventual meltdown.Snyper wrote:We have alot of infrastructure that was built on the back of the boom...roads, new hospitals including all the private projects, i dont know if you know athlone, i lived here all my life, its a different town now than it was 20 years ago... its a much better town.
Lived in Athlone when I was about 2, been through it a few times. It's like any other large regional market town...Dundalk did benefit in certain respects...but we lost a lot of things we had 20 yrs ago too. The local hospital being a big loss early this year (that's squarely at the HSE's door though).
You can argue Dundalk is better... although better for who is debatable. Lots of new SC/malls/retail parks, new hotels that aren't needed, we got the roads and the big private estates, nice shiny glass offices for council staff and private firms alike. But we're also left with a lot of empty commercial property (built under tax breaks imposed by Cowen). TBH anything would have been an improvement...Snyper wrote:No, no anger, it was at this point i was being flippant to make a point, yes i agree again with alot of what you say, but i would somewhat disagree with you about him been a good leader.. i dont think hes great, but he has to make cuts, its making the right ones that matter.. the country needs to keep running, no cuts are easy, but making the ones that will lessen the blow is what matters. Its a matter of opinion what cuts are good and bad..
Time will tell
It's more of a matter of persepctive. If you're in public service then you want to keep your job and wage level...probably not possible. If you're on the social then you want that level to be maintained...again not really feasible. If you're min wage, then you want to continue earning that (relatively paltry) min wage....even though it arguably makes business uncompetitive.
Politicians (not just FFers) still don't seem to have a grasp of where real and fair cuts should happen...no-one wants to piss off their voter base, but cuts have to happen...it's that those cuts have to happen that I have the problem with...proper fiscal policies throughout the boom years would have headed many of these problems off at the pass...instead everyone rode the gravy train, pushed prices up for everything and meant that we had to borrow for everything from an only too willing international bond market.
The anglo bailout whilst very unpalatable is necessary if only for the fact that it's collapse would probably see consumer banks going to the wall along with a lot of Irish people's savings mine and yours included, banking infrastructure for wages, loans, mortgages etc.
All our personal deposits have likely been used as collateral for loans from anglo to give to developers, which in turn have been used as collateral for anglo to borrow from foreign bond markets. Maybe I'm wrong on this but it's the only real reason I can see for the continuous tossing of money into the black hole of Stephen's Green.
Again as Cowen was on the bridge, if not at the helm, whilst all this went down, I ahve to question his competence as a leader....making cuts is easy, making intervening policy decisions to stave off the necessity of making those cuts now would have been harder but that was the medicine we needed and would have been the trait of real leadership.
To get back OT, Newsweek is blinkered by it's own bias, of the capitalist stockholder/sharebuyer/bloomberg watching mentality...it regards a politician guilty of a multitude of questionable policy implementations that contributed to the crash as being a top lad for managing to pull the pursestrings tight when forced to do so by economies outside of his control. Having no money to spend doesn't make you a good leader...0 -
Deleted User wrote: »It's true though.. We're getting some international praise for taking corrective action over a year earlier than most places. We can't see it but we'd be more fooked without it.
This is what the international investors are reading today - The downgrade reflects our opinion that the rising budgetary cost of supporting the Irish financial sector will further weaken the government's fiscal flexibility over the medium term," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Trevor Cullinan. In light of the recent announcement of new capital injections into Anglo Irish Bank Corp. Ltd. (BBB/Watch Neg/A-2), our updated projections suggest that Ireland's net general government debt will rise toward 113% of GDP in 2012. This is more than 1.5x the median for the average of eurozone sovereigns, and well above the debt burdens we project for similarly rated eurozone sovereigns such as Belgium (98%; Kingdom of; AA+/Stable/A-1+) and Spain (65%; Kingdom of; AA/Negative/A-1+).0 -
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Good Lord, Is Newsweek serious, hardly. If the editor spent one week in this country he would change his impression of Brian Cowan.0
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