there is an old saying in banking, perhaps originating in hebrew, though the amounts have changed over the millenia, whose current iteration would go something like this:
“if you owe the bank a million dollars, and cannot pay, you have a problem. if you owe the bank a hundred million dollars and cannot pay, the bank has a problem.”
at this moment, the people of ireland have a power they have never known, and may never have or know again. they, courtesy of their temporary economic boom, housing bust, and government’s policies, owe foreign banks more than $1000 Billion dollars worth of debts that they cannot pay. much of which is owed to english banks, some more to german banks. because of interconnected debts, swaps, creative financing, etc. the irish find themselves in the unique position of being able to destroy the english pound sterling and the euro in one stroke of strategic default.
thus the pressure from the eu and the imf to force ireland’s leaders to accept the ‘need’ for a bailout. the english have even offered several billion dollars worth of ‘help’, though they cannot afford to, but then it is but a circular function of helping themselves. (ala aig and goldman sachs)
but the irish people are beginning to realize the power of their position and have already begun to turn on their leaders and to withdraw their money from the banks. if they are successful in bringing down their government and provoking a snap election before the budget/bailout provisions can be made into law, the dominoes begin to fall. good-bye royal bank of scotland, good-bye lloyd’s of london, adios barclays etc. and the pound sinks to international insignificance on par with the peso, and the euro currency shatters into dozens of pieces.
what a conundrum for the us fed? it’s unsuccessful efforts this year to destroy the euro can quickly be fully realized, if only it will agree to also destroy the english pound. i say “fuck ‘em”, the us fed will get what’s coming to them later.
the time is now for ireland to ‘just say NO’ (and ‘sic semper tyrannus’) the irish have long known how to survive being poor and can do so again, whereas the english do not and cannot. (which also means the likelihood that the english banks will retaliate by killing a few of their own, via bullets or bombs, with civilian casualties included, then blame the irish for the attacks in order to garner sympathy for their self-made plight and to cover their misdeeds)
’tis going to be the chinese century anyway, might as well kickstart it now. c’mon ireland, you can make it alone, many americans will help you start over without the chains of international finance.
tell ‘em to go to hell and get fooked
stephenhsmith
23nov2010
