…an Irish solution to an Irish (sic) problem…

Sporting the cuddly-ish name of the ‘Troika’, the IMF, ECB and European Commission were in Dublin  making sure that taxpayers in Ireland pay for the socialised debts of, amongst others, German and French banks who made poorly judged loans to Irish banks.

Troika frontman, of sorts, Ajai Chopra, gave his approval of the current arrangements.

It represents an Irish solution to an Irish problem and it enjoys our support.

If Mr Chopra isn’t taking the proverbial, his Troika colleague Istvan Szekely (EC director of Economic and Financial Affairs) must be when he made this claim about last weeks stress test on the banks at the centre of that same bailout:

The credibility of the exercise has been reflected in positive market reaction, with Irish bond yields declining following the announcement…

I’m not an economist, but today Moodys actually cut Irish bonds down to just about junk level today while bond yields were around 9.83% (and rising). Now, in March the Irish bond yields were hovering around 10%, having been just below 9% in November when the state formerly known as the Republic of Ireland was made a ward of the European financial services industry. It had been a mere 6% in September 2010. Meanwhile, 210,000 people are unable to pay utility bills and the FG/Labour government announced that it has now plans to reverse the reduction in the minimum wage, although, if you read the small print, that has been balanced by changes in joint labour agreements over wage rates (that, surprise, surprise, actually impact on more lowpaid workers, probably what they meant by ‘burden sharing’).

Now, my two maths A-level certificates may be nearly 20 years old, but 9% is still lower than both 9.83% and 10%, isn’t it?

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