banks

Budget 2016 – A resolution to mortgage crisis

Johnny Fallon on October 9, 2015, 8:34 am | Readers 537

David Hall of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation says that Budget 2016 can help the 10,000 families currently facing repossession in Ireland. Today he outlines a simple but efficient means by with Finance Minister Michael Noonan could resolve this issue and prevent another surge in Ireland’s homelessness figures. For the past six years banks have not trusted those in arrears and have used the unproven propaganda that large numbers of borrowers are not engaging with banks and that many can …

Budget 2016 – An opportunity to ease the burden on squeezed classes

Johnny Fallon on October 8, 2015, 11:23 am | Readers 223

In the second of our pre-budget series Longford based Independent Barbara Smyth outlines the measures she would like to see implemented to improve the lot of families and those struggling to cope. Continuous austerity budgets have seen the most vulnerable people in our society having to accept being the ones who suffered the most. Working families who have always paid their taxes, mortgages, bills and contributed most to our economy have seen their disposable income vanish. Child poverty increased while …

“Introducing a new Scottish currency has always been the most sensible option….”

Mick Fealty on September 16, 2014, 1:22 pm | Readers 856

Okay, so let’s for argument’s sake assume the premise of my previous blog is roughly true. Why is Alex Salmond want to mash up the media playing field between now and Thursday. It’s the conclusion from a short paper by Angus Armstrong and Monique Ebell of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), called simply, Is This Plan B: In 2016, Scotland is likely to face twin deficits in the year that it might become an independent nation. …

UK business lending slashed in face of lowered growth prospects…

Mick Fealty on February 14, 2012, 12:41 pm | Readers 40

Paying down baby debt may have sounded like a good policy in opposition, but George Osborne’s intervention to try and get banks (those largely publicly funded institutions) to lend money in an economy that’s as close as Ireland to contracting again, is faltering… The Daily Mail reports lending to business is down by £10 Billion on last year… And Moody’s have put the UK on notice that its AAA rating is switched from positive to negative. They cite two primary …

Euro crisis: “it is the fear of the unknown that is holding sway”

Pete Baker on June 8, 2011, 4:46 pm | Readers 4

Frau Bundeskanzerlin has been to Washington, to pick up her Presidential Medal of Freedom. And to smooth over the ruffled feathers of that transatlantic relationship. As he handed over the medal, US President Barack Obama warned of the danger of the Euro debt crisis impacting the global economy, and in particular, the US economy. He might be looking for a handy scapegoat in the months ahead… But as, still everyone’s hero, Robert Peston points out “America’s banks would seem to have a good …

UK Chancellor: “Making the loan has enabled us to set that condition and to be part of the discussion…”

Pete Baker on December 16, 2010, 2:35 pm | Readers 4

As the UK’s Loans to Ireland Bill passes on to the House of Lords for a second reading – debate here – the BBC’s Robert Peston notes that The interest rate on the £3.25bn being made available in eight lumps over the next three years will be 2.29% above the cost for the British government of borrowing for seven and a half years. Which means that a profit is more or less guaranteed for Britain. George Osborne today estimated that …

Ireland can’t afford to bail out European banks

Mack on November 30, 2010, 2:41 pm | Readers 1

I think this point is worth highlighting more clearly. Below – Simon Johnson ex-CEO of the IMF – on who is owed money by the Irish banks German banks are owed $139 billion, which is 4.2 percent of German G.D.P. British banks are owed $131 billion, or about 5 percent of Britain’s G.D.P. French banks are owed $43.5 billion, which is approaching 2 percent of French G.D.P. But the eye-catching numbers are for Belgium, which is owed $29 billion – …

Europe gets serious. May double the EFSF, may burn bank senior bond holders

Mack on November 25, 2010, 5:15 pm | Readers 4

The Wall Street Journal are speculating that the size of the EFSF may double to almost €1trn, if German opposition can be overcome. This is an effort to assure markets that Europe can bail out Spain if neccessary. Doubling the EFSF’s capacity to €880 billion would remove any doubt about whether the facility has enough firepower to prop up Spain’s government. Such an expansion would require a bigger financial commitment from Germany, where many lawmakers and voters are skeptical about …

Having handed the keys to Ireland’s silver to the ECB…

Mick Fealty on November 8, 2010, 5:57 pm | Readers 5

MOrgan Kelly is back in the Irish Times telling it like it is. And it’s not pretty. The question of why Fianna Fail/Green government chose to bail out high risk investors in Anglo (that notorious subordinated debt) to the tune of £9 billion is now a mere academic question for historians, or investigative journalists and/or restless bloggers. Ireland PLC no longer has that option. Kelly explains: September marked Ireland’s point of no return in the banking crisis. During that month, …

IMF propose new bankers tax

Mack on April 21, 2010, 11:56 am | Readers 0

In a new report to the G20, the IMF recommend that two new special taxes should be levied on banks and bankers to meet the cost of any future financial crises. The two taxes target bankers pay and bank profits. Per the Times report The first tax, a Financial Stability Contribution, would be a levy to fund any future government support. The second would be a Financial Activities Tax on the sum of the profits and remuneration of financial institutions. …