SCAMA

Whatever next? NAMA, the biggest scam ever to be pulled on the the Irish people.

The simple story is this; Irish Banks (with the blessing of the Irish government and their own shareholders) went into the international market place and borrowed money like kids in a candy store. They re-lent it out to the Irish people with an almost abandonment of risk. That is to say that every Tom, Dick and Harry in the country was lined up and money pressed into his pocket. In the case of property developers it was millions and for the ordinary Joe Soap, it was thousands. The money was basically spent on property and its derivatives; a useful little industry for a while, but one with no real future. Now these Toms et al can't pay back, the banks are bust and the government (essentially us) have to step in to prevent them (and by extension the country) from under.

Now it would be reasonable to think that the people who presided over this mess would feel totally ashamed and would immediately fall on their swords, take their punishment or at least hide their faces. But not our morally bankrupt crowd! The politicans dream up NAMA. This is a scheme whereby the Irish taxpayer will have to pay back all the bad loans over the next 2 or 3 generations, without getting anything in return. (By the way, the Germans will prevent us wiping out those debts with inflation. ) The Irish banks, free of their bad loans, will become profitable again and their value rise. Qui bono? Why none other than the bank shareholders, who of course are closely related to the politicans. They will sit back and see their share price rise once again!

All those happy- go- lucky graduates now coming out out of college will soon realise that they have been ripped off and have another 30 or 40 years of this to face. They will not be happy campers. Worrying?