And so, the trick is complete,
Minister Noonan's 'where's the pea' con-job on the Promissory Note for 2012
sold to the Irish public as a 'deal' that has postponed payment. The mainstream
media has been mesmerised by all the sleight of hand of the past few months – where
exactly did Michael slip that €3.1bn?
Our man
'Marcel-so-what' at the BofI EGM on Monday morning
Now we know. On Monday Bank of Ireland finally held
their EGM and decided by an overwhelming majority (I think the final vote was
over 99% 'for') to buy from NAMA the sovereign bond it (NAMA) had been ordered
by Minister Noonan to purchase from Minister Noonan, a bond which will 'mature'
in 2025. Well they would, wouldn't they? Bank of Ireland will simply take the
cheap money on offer from the ECB (ah, generous selfless people, those ECB
bankers), then charge the government (that's us, people) a nice little mark-up
to assume this bond. Their annual take? Oh, around €38m - money for jam.
While all this has been happening
though, all this moving around of the 'cups' to distract people, what has
happened to the pea, or in this case, what has happened to the P Note of
€3.1bn? Why, it's gone! Anglo took from NAMA the €3.1bn given to them of OUR
money (thanks...), in turn gave it to our Central Bank (thanks again...) who in
turn, and by order of the ECB (did I mention them earlier?), destroyed that
money. Every cent of it. Thus was the Promissory Note of 2012 paid, in full.
The deal? A sordid, shameful
episode of 'financial engineering' (get used to that term) whereby a problem
debt of this generation's creation that was eminently arguable has been transformed
into a sovereign bond, but a bond that will be paid by the NEXT generation,
when Minister Noonan and his friends are long gone from office.
We've been conned, people, and
even as we speak the same Minister Noonan and HIS people are looking to pull a
similar con-job on us on the remaining P Notes, taking today's problem and very
arguable debt and transforming it into sovereign bonds to be paid by our
children, and possibly even by our children's children. Is that how you would
conduct your own affairs?
Meanwhile we continue to bail out
the failed bank bondholders. Next week we pay four bonds, two each from the
rotting corpses of Anglo and INBS, all four totally unsecured, coming to a
total of over €1bn. My friends, we have been locked in a dance of death with
those zombies. Time to break free. Join us in our protest in Ballyhea and Charleville,
every Sunday. This week (week 69 – 16 months!) we’re in Charleville, meeting at
the Library Plaza at 11.30am – plenty of time to march and still make the
throw-in in Páirc Uí Chaoimh!
Regards,
Diarmuid O’Flynn
@ballyhea14
Facebook: Ballyhea bondholder
bailout protest
