Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChanceIs who wrote (242851)	4/1/2010 9:26:09 AM
From: ChanceIs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Ireland’s Banking Crisis: ‘Namageddon’ >>>So Ireland's "bad bank" pays reasonable prices - 47% haircut - to the reckless banks which lent so foolishly. Apparently those banks have now been told to capitalize themselves in the proveate market (stock issuance??). Timmy and Ben I believe paid par for the MBS of very questionable worth. The banksters get their bonuses and may or may not be able to stand on their own - at least for a year before they are swamped by CRE. But Timmy feels bad about it and says it isn't fair. He does. I have heard him say it twice now. Kiss it and make it better for me Timmy.<<< * March 31, 2010, 3:32 PM GMT By Quentin Fottrell “Namageddon” — that’s what they call it. It’s a word that will go down in history to describe the folly of Ireland’s bankers, developers and ruling political elite. The National Asset Managment Agency, or NAMA, Ireland’s so-called “bad bank,” will buy a staggering €81 billion in land and development loans from banks at a discount of around 47%. But “Namageddon” doesn’t begin to cover it. The government says Ireland’s banks — which lent so aggressively and recklessly to high-flying millionaire property developers during the Celtic Tiger years — will need nearly €22 billion by the end of the year to prevent them from collapsing. The latest round of banking results were not pretty: on Wednesday, Anglo Irish Bank reported an operating loss of €12.7 billion for the 15 months to the end of 2009, while Bank of Ireland posted a net loss of €1.46 billion for the nine months to the end of 2009. Allied Irish Banks, meanwhile, looks increasingly likely to slide under state control if it can’t raise the €7.4 billion it needs before year-end. The Central Bank says Bank of Ireland will need €2.7 billion by year-end, Allied Irish Banks will need €7.4 billion by year-end, and Anglo Irish Bank will need €8.3 billion … by the end of this week. The country’s two biggest building societies will collectively require €3.5 billion. The National Pensions Reserve Fund, originally conceived to take care of the country’s aging baby boomers when they retire, and generations of taxpayers, will pick up the bill that runs into billions of euros. That also means higher taxes, and less money for schools and hospitals. As he delivered the bad news to the nation on Tuesday evening Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan described the situation at Ireland’s major banks as “horrifying.” In the same breath, he said the now-nationalized Anglo Irish Bank — regarded here as the chief culprit — may need another €10 billion over time. Economists say other banks saw the speed with which Anglo Irish Bank lent money to developers, and wanted a piece of the action. All but mortgage lender and life insurer Irish Life & Permanent followed suit. Many of those exciting new developments are now empty building sites. Richard Bruton, the finance spokesman for the opposition party Fine Gael, took aim at the government’s financial support of Anglo Irish Bank. “The government is converting Sean FitzPatrick’s debts into taxpayer’ debts,” he said. He reckons the bank was run by “bucaneers.” Sean FitzPatrick is Anglo’s former chairman — a high-profile figure widely reviled by the Irish public. He and former finance director Willie McAteer, were arrested by Irish police this month for questioning about alleged financial irregularities. They were released without charge. Whatever happens to those who were responsible, there’s no going back now. As one man told state broadcaster RTE Radio on Wednesday afternoon: “My children will be paying for this. And my children’s children.” And very possibly his children’s children’s children. It’s the classic fairytale gone bad. A brave little country was given three wishes: low interest rates, high wages and billions in multinational investment. For a brief moment in time, for the first time in its history, Ireland was wealthy and had the respect of the world. Then it threw it all away. And that’s why they call it Namageddon.

To: ChanceIs who wrote (242851)	4/1/2010 10:10:53 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

He's on our side Probably even posting here under an alias ---- Geithner: Disparity in recovery 'deeply unfair' 1 hr 17 mins ago WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday it's "deeply unfair" that some financial institutions that got taxpayer-paid bailouts are emerging in better shape from the recession than millions of ordinary Americans. He acknowledged public outrage over that and said people watched with disdain as Washington protected high-risk banks and investment houses, even as the national unemployment rate was soaring to double-digit levels for the first time in a generation. But in a nationally broadcast interview, Geithner also argued that President Barack Obama had no choice when confronted with a financial crisis. "As the president has said, we had to do some very unpopular things," Geithner said. "People looked at what had happened." "It's not fair. It's deeply unfair," he said. "He (Obama) had to decide whether he was going to act to fix it or stand back ... and that would have been calamitous for the American economy." The government eventually embarked on a program of assisting the threatened financial institutions, and the sweeping, multibillion-dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) created as a bailout engine. Geithner also said that administration officials are "very worried" about recovering the more than 8 million jobs lost in the recession. But he noted that business growth has been improving and expects the economy "is going to start creating jobs again." The secretary agreed that the national jobless rate — now at 9.7 percent — is "still terribly high and is going to stay unacceptably high for a very long time" because of the damage caused by the recession. "Just because this was the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," Geithner said, "a huge amount of damage was done to businesses and families across the country ... and it's going to take us a long time to heal that damage. " More than 11 million people now are drawing unemployment insurance benefits, and the overall jobless rate of 9.7 percent understates the true level of economic misery because many people who give up looking for work are no longer in the official count of the unemployed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday will release a report on conditions in the labor markets in March. A report Thursday said that initial claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week as the recovering economy moves closer to generating more jobs. The Labor Department said new jobless benefit claims dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 439,000, nearly matching analysts' estimates. It's the fourth drop in five weeks. Geithner said he hopes skeptical voters will note legislation moving through Congress to bring reforms to the financial system. "What happened in our country should never happen again," he said. "People were paid for taking enormous risks. It was a crazy way to run a financial system." Geithner said, "It's the government's job ... to do a better job of restraining that kind of risk-taking." The Geithner interview was broadcast Thursday on NBC's "Today" show.

To: ChanceIs who wrote (242851)	4/1/2010 12:48:15 PM
From: ChanceIs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Denninger skewers Geithner............ __________________ Geithner Writes Own Resignation Speech Well, it should have been anyway. WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday it's "deeply unfair" that some financial institutions that got taxpayer-paid bailouts are emerging in better shape from the recession than millions of ordinary Americans. ... But in a "TODAY" show interview, Geithner also argued that President Barack Obama had no choice when confronted with a financial crisis. Let's say that I accept that. I don't, by the way, but let's assume that I do. The real problem with his speechifying is here: "What happened in our country should never happen again," he said. "People were paid for taking enormous risks. It was a crazy way to run a financial system." Geithner said, "It's the government's job ... to do a better job of restraining that kind of risk-taking." Who was the one that was responsible for watching over that enormous risk-taking and crazy operation of the financial system? Oh that would be Timmy Geithner, who was running the NY Federal Reserve Bank, the organization that both executes monetary policy and monitors every one of those "too big to fail" institutions that we had to bail out. So for Timmy's malfeasance, misfeasance or both - which he just admitted to on national television - he is promoted to Treasury Secretary? If you're an Obama supporter, how do you defend not only the choice of Timmy for the job in the first place, but President Obama's continued "confidence and support" in the very man who has admitted that the financial system that he oversaw and was charged with monitoring was being run "in a crazy way"?