Blog Archives
Anglo Irish Bank- Latest updates
Former Anglo Irish Bank boss to stand trial in October 2014
Irish Examiner
Sean FitzPatrick, the former Anglo Irish Bank chairman, will stand trial in October of next year. He faces 12 charges of failing to tell the bank’s auditors the true value loans worth €139m given to him, or people connected to him, by Irish Nationwide …
See all stories on this topic »
Former Anglo Irish Bank boss to stand trial in October 2014
Irish Examiner
Sean FitzPatrick, the former Anglo Irish Bank chairman, will stand trial in October of next year. He faces 12 charges of failing to tell the bank’s auditors the true value loans worth €139m given to him, or people connected to him, by Irish Nationwide …
See all stories on this topic »
Central Bank and regulator ‘egging us on’ – Anglo
Irish Independent
But in the latest Anglo Tapes, head of treasury John Bowe can be heard convincing himself that the Central Bank and Financial Regulator were “effectively egging us on – for Irish banks to help each other”. Mr Bowe planned to craft a document to …
See all stories on this topic »
We are a complete punchbag at this stage, says Drumm
Irish Independent
During the revealing conversations, it is clear that Mr Drumm knows at this stage that the fate ofAnglo and Ireland are now bound together inextricably. But he is obviously more concerned about the survival of his own bank. In this latest tape, Mr …
See all stories on this topic »
Anglo Irish Bank- Drumm didn’t want any ‘b*ll*xology’ from Central Bank ‘clowns’
Anglo: Central bank boss Honohan says people ‘energised’ by tapes
Irish Independent
Ganley shown minutes from Anglo Irish meeting on ‘overcharging’. Businessman Declan Ganley was shown minutes from a meeting at Anglo Irish Bank that raise serious questions about how interest was applied to loans.
See all stories on this topic »
Tapes show Anglo executives discussed run on deposits
Irish Times
Discussing how they might encourage the Central Bank to provide “fallback” funds Mr Drumm is heard to say it may be time for Anglo Irish to have a “conversation with our friends on Dame Street [the Central Bank],” due to the volume cash withdrawals.
See all stories on this topic »
David Drumm: ‘I’ll no longer be made a scapegoat for banking crisis’Irish Independent
|
‘I’m beat, I am totally beat at this stage’ – ‘Oh, join the gang, ha, ha, ha!’Irish Independent |
Drumm didn’t want any ‘b*ll*xology’ from Central Bank ‘clowns’
irishtimes.comDavid Drumm attacked the ‘drip, drip, drip’ release of the tapes
RTE.ie
Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has said he will no longer allow himself to be a scapegoat for the banking crisis. Mr Drumm issued his statement to RTÉ news, as the transcripts of more recordings he had with another former Anglo …
See all stories on this topic »
‘The market is drunk!’
Irish Independent
S&P, the bank credit rating agency, has just issued a new note warning investors to be wary ofAnglo Irish Bank. David Drumm, the bank’s chief executive, calls up John Bowe, head of treasury, to discuss what it all means for Anglo. The conversation …
See all stories on this topic »
Anglo: New tapes reveal meekness of State’s watchdogs
Irish Independent
I just was not asked about tapes, says Dukes. THE former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank did not reveal the existence of the Anglo Tapes to major inquiries into the collapse of the banking system because he was “not asked about” them.
See all stories on this topic »
Ganley shown minutes from Anglo Irish meeting on ‘overcharging’
Irish Independent
Businessman Declan Ganley was shown minutes from a meeting at Anglo Irish Bank that raise serious questions about how interest was applied to loans. Also in this section. Super-rich duped in €30m US land scheme · Beer could be the answer to all our …
See all stories on this topic »
Anglo Irish Bank
Sunday Independent to reveal more Anglo tapes
|
Seán Quinn used British Virgin Islands company to invest in Russian developmentIrish TimesThe offshore company was used several years before Quinn was accused by the former Anglo Irish Bank of using a British Virgin Islands company to put multimillion of euros in assets beyond the reach of the bank. Lawyers for Anglo Irish, now known as … See all stories on this topic »
|
Opinion: Anglo tapes leave job-hunting former staff reelingBut one group of victims now stand doubly victimised – former employees of the old Anglo Irish Bank, who are still on the staff of IBRC. Professionals who had nothing to do with the high-risk approach at the top. People who, quite literally never did … See all stories on this topic » |
March Ireland- Jail the Bankers
-
Hello thanks so much for the invite to the page. I am living in the bog lands my whole life and these EU makey uppy laws are a crock. Thought you guys might like this event. Might be good time to get your messages seen on some placards. Its very frustrating how little people know about the bog. It could really help people realise what is happening.
Keep up the good work!
March 🙂400 people marched on Sat 29th June through Dublin and decided to call a follow up protest at the Dail while it sits on Weds night at 6pm.
The Dail is open until 9pm on Weds.
So tell everyone to get to the protest this Weds!
https://www.facebook.com/events/169550859889655
we have 72 hours build up to this even if you are not free invite all your friends they might end up inviting someone who is free . its us or them what will you spend your time posting about ???
SUPPORT THE PROTEST COPY & PASTE THIS MESSAGE
Anglo Irish Bank- Latest updates from far and Wide
Merrill Lynch Wanted Anglo Irish Bank Shut, Reveals New Recording
IBTimes.co.uk
American-investment bank Merrill Lynch, external advisor to the Brian Cowen-led Irish government in 2008 and former corporate broker to now defunct Anglo Irish Bank (AIB), had recommended that the bank be shut down. The latest set of tapped phone …
See all stories on this topic »
Irish banker apologises for taped comments
Reuters
Anglo Irish ex-CEO made light of bank bailout. * In first public comments, Drumm says regrets tone and language. * Tapes prompted outrage in Ireland, criticism in EU. DUBLIN, June 30 (Reuters) – AnIrish banker taped saying he would demand cash from …
See all stories on this topic »
The Quinn connection
Irish Independent
In the chaos, its executives believe that the reason their bank is failing is the country’s richest man,Sean Quinn, who has taken a gigantic bet on Anglo. In this section of the Anglo Tapes, John Bowe, the bank’s head of treasury, and Matt Moran, the …
See all stories on this topic »
| Cowen decision proof of FF’s cosy relationship with Anglo, says FG TD Irish Independent The decision taken by then Taoiseach Brian Cowen to ignore the advice of his external advisers is further proof of the cosy relationship that existed between “Fianna Fáil, their developer friends andAnglo Irish Bank,” Fine Gael TD Dara Murphy claimed … See all stories on this topic » |
| Anglo Tapes: Anatomy of the bank that broke Ireland Irish Independent (blog) The Anglo Tapes have delivered a riveting insight into the bowels of Anglo Irish Bank during the financial crisis that toppled the State. For the first time the public can feel what it was like to be some of the key men behind the fall of a bank which … See all stories on this topic » |
| New Tape Recordings Reveal Brazen Chicanery At Irish Bank That Soaked Its … Forbes Shocking tape recordings released this week display the heads of Anglo Irish Bank, the private bank favored by the wealthiest speculators and property developers behind the Irish boom, literally laughing about the subterfuges they played straight … See all stories on this topic » |
| Inside Anglo: Secret recordings expose strategy that sank Ireland Irish Independent Latest Videos. Listen: Clip 11(a) – Punch. Conversation between David Drumm, Chief Executive,Anglo Irish Bank and John Bowe, Director of Treasury, Anglo Irish Bank on December 15th, 2008. Clip 13: Moran on Quinn. Conversation between John Bowe, … See all stories on this topic » |
| ‘Impossible to stomach’: Merkel slams Irish bankers who fudged bailout figures RT (blog) The internally-recorded phone calls, published earlier this week, reveal how two Anglo Irish bankexecutives misled the Central Bank of Ireland that Anglo bank required 7 billion euro to prevent its collapse. Anglo’s losses reached 30 billion euro … See all stories on this topic » |
| Further revelations from bank tapes Belfast Telegraph The former taoiseach’s government refused to shut down the Anglo–Irish Bank despite warnings from their external financial advisers, Merrill Lynch, that the institution was a “basket case”, the latest batch of recordings published in the Irish … See all stories on this topic » |
Anglo Irish Bank Update Plus Other Irish News
O’Brien’s Digicel loses out in Burma
Winners of sought-after licences include Norway’s Telenor read full article
Anglo bankers believed they could force an outcome at expense of State
Leaked recordings reveal bankers thought they could fool regulators read full article
Tapes show Anglo Irish boss demands
Belfast Telegraph
Anglo Irish Bank bosses were ordered to go down to the Central Bank with “arms swinging” to demand a multibillion-euro taxpayer bailout, latest leaked tapes reveal. Also in this Section. Man quizzed over double murder · Fast-growing firms create 90 …
See all stories on this topic »
German media fury at jibes of Anglo bankers
Irish Times
On Tuesday morning Dan Mulhall, the Irish Ambassador to Germany, gave an upbeat assessment of Ireland’s economic recovery and its EU presidency on Germany’s equivalent of RTÉ Radio 1. Just 24 hours later, he had a far less pleasant task: sending an …
Irish Times
Revelations of the behaviour and attitude of Anglo-Irish Bank executives before and after the introduction of the bank guarantee in September 2008 were stomach churning, the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, has said. Speaking in Dublin as he …
Complaint filed with gardai over Anglo executives
Anti-austerity campaigners ask for three senior bankers to be charged read full article
Angela Merkel says Anglo revelations are damaging to democracy
‘I have nothing but contempt for this’ read full article
Prostitution Law » Bock The Robber
This proposed prostitution law is going to run into the same problems as all the other attempts to deal with the subject because it’s fundamentally not amenable to logic. I personally find the notion of prostitution revolting, but that’s not a reason to ban it. I also find Youth Defence, Bono and Fianna Fáil repulsive […]read full article
Norris rejects call to criminalise purchase of sex
Independent Senator also criticises Taoiseach over Seanad abolition proposal read full article
Europe expects Ireland to exit bailout without a deal for AIB and the Bank of Ireland
Connection between Ireland’s sovereign and banking debts remains intact read full article
Ireland slips back into recession
Ireland is officially back in recession after the government’s planned export-led recovery took a hammering. read full article
Financial Times
The bad news comes after shocking revelations this week about Irish bankers’ attitudes to the billions of taxpayers’ money used to rescue the banks at the start of Ireland’s financial crisis. “The economy is still ‘flatlining’ and net exports are a …
ESB staff anger over €400m pension move
Trustees chairman warns payment to Government puts scheme under severe financial strain read full article
Quinn family fight against Anglo closest yet to banking inquiry
Material given to the Quinn family, in its battle with the former Anglo Irish Bank, indicates what would be revealed in a banking inquiry read full article
Varadkar says new abortion referendum would have to be about more than suicide
Minister asks FG colleagues to reflect on Bill before voting against it read full article
Timmins to vote against abortion Bill
Fine Gael TD for Wicklow to join two others and break Government ranks read full article
Banks can no longer ‘kick the can down the road’ on mortgage crisis, says Minister
Central Bank code on mortgage arrears a ‘charter for home repossessions’, FF says read full article
Anglo Irish Bank News Round up from Home and Abroad
Burton calls on Cowen to reveal what happened on night of bank guarantee
Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen is under deepening pressure to come clean over the bank guarantee scheme. read full article
Anglo Irish Bank tapes: executives mock Germans amid bailoutThe Guardian |
Anglotapes: If they saw the enormity of it up front, they might decide they have a choice.
Following the release of tapes of Anglo staff discussing how they present their case for support, in the lead up to the bank guarantee, there are more revelations in todays Irish Independent (which has been breaking the story). You can listen to the tapes via the Indo’s website (at the links above), but here are… read full article
Irish ‘rage’ after bank manipulated multi-billion bailout
EUobserver.com
BRUSSELS – Irish leader Enda Kenny has said he understands “the rage and the anger” of Irishpeople on Monday (24 June) following a leak of taped conversations by two Anglo-Irish bank bosses which indicate the Irish government was conned into …
Top Irish Bankers Hoodwinked Government Over Bailout, Secret Recordings Show
Business Insider
A top banker with the financial institution that almost bankrupted Ireland boasted that he had picked the figure of €7bn (£5.9bn) they told the Irish government was needed to rescue the Anglo Irish Bank “out of his arse.” Taped phone calls between two …
Irish Times
David Drumm, former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, tells a senior manager at the bank in the latest tape revelations: “We won’t do anything blatant, but . . . we have to get the money in . . . get the f***in’ money in, get it in.” Photograph …
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
| Irish Open guide SkySports The Colin Montgomerie-designed course is 10 years old, has little in the way of water hazards but an abundance of deep bunkers. Despite being inland – around 10 miles west of Dublin city centre – it offers a distinct links feel. And with putting … |
|||||||
| Anglo Irish scandal complicates Dublin’s debt negotiations Financial Times Senior executives at Anglo Irish Bank had laughed off concerns expressed by Irish regulators and EU governments that they were abusing the bank guarantee issued by Dublin at the height of the financial crisis by using it to lure bank deposits from the … |
|||||||
| Irish outrage grows over ‘arrogant’ failed bank Reuters UK Pedestrians walk past the Anglo Irish Bank head offices, in Belfast March 25, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Cathal McNaughton. By Sam Cage and Conor Humphries. DUBLIN | Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:19pm BST. DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s deputy prime minister laid in … |
|||||||
|
Anglo Irish Bank News update as viewed from home and abroad
‘So, [the loan] is bridged, until we can pay you back . . . which is never’
Banker laughs at making repayments and mimics voice of Financial Regulator read full article
Anglo Irish bankers ‘tricked’ government into bailoutTelegraph.co.uk |
| Irish opposition calls for bank inquiry after tapes leak Reuters DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s opposition called for a full inquiry into the collapse of Ireland’s financial system on Monday, after a newspaper published recordings of talks between Anglo Irish Bank executives about a bailout. Rescuing indebted banks … Ireland’s rage over Anglo-Irish rescue revelations is justified – Enda Kenny
The Guardian Ireland’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, said Irish people were entitled to be angry about revelations that an executive at the firm that almost bankrupted the country boasted he had picked the €7bn (now £6bn) figure purportedly needed to rescue Anglo … See all stories on this topic » Irish bankers ‘hoodwinked’ government over bailout, secret recordings show Kenny Faces Irish Bank Inquiry Calls as Anglo Tapes Released Tapes expose culture within toxic Irish bankSenior figures in the former Anglo Irish Bank, John Bowe and Peter Fitzgerald, were recorded discussing how the toxic lender was seeking a €7 billion rescue fund, but that it needed more. read full article Irish Government to Push for Banking Inquiry
Wall Street Journal DUBLIN—The Irish government is determined to implement new laws to help launch the country’s first wide-ranging inquiry into the causes of its banking debt crisis and help assuage “the rage and the anger” of people deeply affected by it, Irish Prime … See all stories on this topic » Anglo Irish still offering insight into banks’ crisis
Financial Times A phone call between two executives at Anglo Irish – just days before Dublin issued a blanket guarantee to its banks in mid-September 2008 – suggests the bank wilfully deceived regulators about its financial health, an allegation that John Bowe, head … See all stories on this topic » Finance Minister had ‘no idea Anglo phone recordings existed’FINANCE Minister Michael Noonan had no idea the Anglo tapes existed until he read yesterday’s Irish Independent. read full article Abuse the bank guarantee, don’t get caught – DrummANGLO Irish Bank boss David Drumm laughed about “abusing” the bank guarantee and warned his executives not to be caught abusing it, the Anglo Tapes reveal. read full article Former executive John Bowe denies misleading Central BankJOHN Bowe says that he “categorically denies” the allegation that he misled the Central Bank or was aware of any strategy to do so. read full article Bounced into the bank bailoutA recorded conversation between senior officials at former Anglo Irish Bank appears to confirm what the public has long suspected: that the Central Bank and last government were bounced into bailing out the banking system and lacked detailed knowledge of the extent of the crisis. The manner in which this exercise was conducted: through obfuscation, veiled financial threats and political pressure, exposes a clientelist system where power and contacts are paramount and nobody is held to…. read full article Bank inquiry to begin by autumn, say Coalition sourcesJohn Bowe says he deeply regrets tone and language he used in phone call read full article ‘Anglo tapes show need for banking inquiry’ – man who wants to run inquiryCiarán Lynch, the chair of the Oireachtas finance committee, says the tapes may be “the tip of the iceberg”. read full article
|
A gombeen-Nation once again : rabble
Illustration Mice Hell
Gombeen (gƊm ‘bi:n). Anglo-Irish. Usury. Chiefly attrib., as Gombeen-Man, a money-lender, usurer; so also gombeen-woman. Hence gom’beenism, the practice of borrowing or lending at usury.
The 19th-century term Gom’beenism, the practice of borrowing or lending at usury, is increasingly referenced in relation to Ireland’s domestic economic practices. Conor McCabe takes a look at the history of the Irish middleman and argues that they haven’t went away.
On Tuesday 3 January 1882 the nobility and landed gentry of Ireland met in Dublin to discuss the future of the island. Among those present was R.J. Mahony, a landowner from Kerry. He stood and said that the recently-passed land act would be the ruin not only of the landlords but of the small farmer as well. He explained that as soon as the landlord class was put out of the way, another would come along to take their place.‘The merchant, the trader, the usurer, the gombeen man,’ said Mahony, were ‘the future rulers of the land.’ Mr. Mahony called these the middlemen, and although he may have had his reasons for defending landlordism, his warnings were not without foundation. Forty years later the middleman were in the ascendancy and set about carving the newly-independent free state in their image – and we’ve been living with the consequences of that ever since.
Just who were these middlemen? In an article published in 1982 Michael D. Higgins wrote that the mainstream image of the period – and the one taught at secondary level – was one of poor small farmers fighting against perfidious, foreign landlords. However, what was glossed over in such a black and white analysis was that there was another struggle – a class struggle – going on, one that involved small farmers and the rancher/grazier families. These large rancher farmers fattened cattle for export, and occasionally they were the local shopkeepers, the arbiters of credit in the community, and the dispensers of loans. It gave them significant societal influence and power. Not all shopkeepers were graziers, of course, but neither one was the friend of the smallholder. The social relations which underpinned Irish rural society were not only framed by land, but by credit: those who needed it, and those who profited from it. And in the north and west of Ireland, it was the Irish entrepreneurial spirit of the middleman and his gombeen cousin that held sway over credit.
Today the middleman is concerned with the tax avoidance, commercial property and resource licences. In the nineteenth century it was the sub-letting of land. The link between the centuries is the practice of positioning oneself between foreign capital and the resources of the island. In an article for the London Times on 7 October 1845 the newspaper’s Irish correspondent explained the ‘middleman’ system to his English readers. Large tracts of land, including waste-land, were let by landlords to a class of businessman known as middlemen. ‘The middleman of 100 acres is no farmer as in England, who invests his capital and skill and industry in the land, and looks for a fair profit,’ write the journalist. The middleman’s ‘laziness makes him prefer doing nothing, his greediness and necessities make him resort to subletting at exorbitant rents to poor tenants, whilst he lives an idle, useless extortioner on the profit rent.’ The poor tenants, in turn, become themselves rent-seekers. ‘He lets out an acre out of his farm of six acres in conacre to some wretched labourer’ wrote the correspondent, ‘who for the potatoes grown on this land is perhaps compelled to work for the farmer the whole year.’
This is not to say that the middleman and gombeen man always got their own way. In the early 1850s the sin of usury and profiteering was punished in the North-West of Ireland by local secret societies such as the Ribbonmen or Molloy Maguires. In one particular case in 1852, recounted by an ex-policeman 50 years later in the Irish Times, three men ‘known as gombeen men purchased agricultural produce in the harvest time and sold out seed in the spring time to needy farmers… touching heavy interest on their three or six months’ bills.’ Their business acumen brought them to the attention of the Ribbonmen. The ex-policeman explained what happened next:
When a gombeen man infringed the rules of the Ribbonmen he was put on trial, and if found guilty, the sentence was carding. His house was visited by a select party of these legislators, generally between midnight and 2am, and he was taken out of bed naked, and placed on a chair in the room, and a pair of wool cards were used with vigour on his chest and back until the blood flowed freely. He was then solemnly cautioned to obey their orders in the future or worse would follow….. The parish priest denounced [the Ribbonmen] from the altar, and a message was conveyed to him to mind his own business.
By the end of the nineteenth century the middleman had expanded their business model into the cities. The decline of Dublin in the decades after the Act of Union and the retreat of the landed gentry from the city opened up the Georgian squares and grand houses to the speculator and rank-renter. In his evidence to the 1884-85 Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, the chief medical officer of Dublin, Sir Charles Cameron, was scathing in his criticism of this urban class of middlemen. In the word of his biographer, Lydia Carroll, this class ‘rented houses from absentee landlords, to re-let at exorbitant rents to the poor.’ Cameron in his evidence stated that they ‘live by screwing the largest amount of rent they can out of the tenants. The disproportion between the rents which the actual owner of the house gets and the rents these house jobbers get out of the tenants is sometimes as one to three.’
In 1924, when the dust had settled on the Civil War, and with the industrial north ensconced in its own mini-state, the grazier, shop-keeper, rank-renter and gombeen man set about the task of carving the Irish State in their image. And what a sight it is to behold.
Since the 1920s the gombeen has become a shorthand for all the ills and evils of the Irish business class. The sins of the middleman, the rank rents and money lending, have concertinaed into a Pat Shortt bumbling character of cloth cap and Guinness stains proportions. And throughout the history of the state, although the type of business has changed, the underlying principles have not. The Irish entrepreneur is still a rentier-class, still acting as middleman between foreign capital and the resources of the State – but whereas before it was the Georgian houses that marked their lives, now it’s the IFSC and the law and accountancy firms that make billions by handling the tax-avoidance millions of others. The resource for sale today is the right of a nation-state to set its own tax laws, and to have those tax laws recognised internationally. That is a tradable commodity, one that provides a comfortable living for those engaged in it. The business suit has replaced the cloth cap, but the gombeenism and criminal self-interest remain.
Irish Bank Debt
Did you ever wonder where this money goes?
Most of the money goes to German banks, in particular, the German Bundesbank, who recklessly lent to Irish Banks with Anglo Irish leading the pack of borrowers. Among the foremost stockholders of the Bundesbank are The Rothschild’s and the Warburg’s two of the richest and most powerful families in the world.
So now, you know some of the beneficiaries of austerity measures in Ireland .
.
Both families have been prominent in the Bilderberg group. This group meet annually and is invitation only. Most of the guests are people of influence (Money).
Journalist Caroline Moorehead in a 1977 article critical of the Bilderberg group’s membership, quoted an unnamed member of the group: “No invitations go out to representatives of the developing countries. ‘Otherwise you simply turn us into a mini-United-Nation,’ said one person. And, ‘we are looking for like-thinking people and compatible people.
Members of the Bilderberg control of most of the world’s resources and financial institutions.
