Like skywatchers in County Mayo waiting for the Rapture, NAMA-watchers are beginning to set up camp in expectation of tomorrow’s revelations from the Father, Son and Holy Ghost of our banking rescue. Brian Lenihan is expected to give an overview of NAMA’s progress to date and what it will mean for banks’ balance sheets, the recapitalisations and possibly the creation of the long-awaited Third Force in Irish banking. The Son (and he may be independent but he knows who his Da is), or the duo of the Regulator and CB Governor will give us their thoughts on minimum capital levels and possibly bash the banks’ past behaviour. And the Holy Ghost, NAMA, may even make a statement on how things are running there but if it’s worth knowing then Simon Carswell has probably done a feature on it already.
But coming back to the similarities between Ryanair and NAMA, Ryanair will fly you from Dublin to Paris and will do so at prices starting at zero. However we may need pay for online booking, use of most payment methods and excess luggage. But the biggest shock might be the plane doesn’t land you by the queue for the Mona Lisa in the Louvre – you’ll need to spend some more travelling time and effort to get there. And so it will be with NAMA. NAMA will not do very much in itself to restore credit and this has been carefully explained by BoI and AIB before the Finance and Public Service committees. However it will clean up their balance sheets making it easier and cheaper for the institutions to access credit. Until they are recapitalised however (and I hope Brian Lenihan deals with impaired residential mortgages on the banks’ balance sheets), credit will not get back to normal because the betting is that banks will behave conservatively in rebuilding their balance sheets despite the best efforts of the government and the credit review channel (maybe we’ll get an announcement on that also tomorrow).
David McWilliams yesterday chastised the government for setting about confusing us with the mechanics and objective of NAMA but is he really being fair in this instance? Perhaps we’ll be better able to judge tomorrow evening after Brian Lenihan has spoken. I hope that unlike the skywatchers in Knock we come away with the satiety that we have witnessed something of lasting value.
NAMA Wine Lake 
These next few hours and days we the people of Ireland are going to be bombarded with propaganda by the powers that be. The Irish government
And the general jest is we know what we are doing, our game plan for the Irish economy and Irish financial credibility “Going forward “etc etc bullshit.
The news media is firmly in the control of spin merchants bought and paid for by the corrupt gangsters running the country .they have been busy spinning their web of deceit for the last few months and reputably truly independent citizens like David are under attack and ridiculed at every opportunity
Thanks be to god for the internet (when it is working) we are blessed with the likes of all who participate on this blog and other blogs
The true nature of news is movement and all you bloggers are helping to do just that.
Our very independence is at stake here and 90 years ago citizens rebelled against tyranny
Just because the gangsters are Irish this time round changes nothing.
One question bothers me a lot
Why are the current government so against the most obvious and logical course of action on the banks? Nationalization
I suppose when the (Boom) was in full swing, they claimed they did not see the disastrous end coming.
I with no financial qualifications was able to time the crash to within 8 months.
The point is I could see it was coming, so could my local Dentist, and my local window cleaner.
with a possible 68,000.000: Billion extra having to go into the Toxic Banks I think it’s time to consider just paying off every citizens mortgage (Home ) instead
Just think what that would do for the country, new international banks would flock into the country, now full of citizens with no crippling mortgages.
Another idea would be that all home loans to be given in future to the citizens by an Post and at a set interest payment of say 2.5 % for the duration of the loan and the period should be 30 years
All loans would be insured by the loan taker and this would insure a stable housing market but take out the speculative nature and thus reduce the chance of a new bubble
Thomas
The news is that the Irish voluntarily handed over their hard won sovereignty in order to steal a fast buck.
The EU is now our sovereign. Get used to it.
FUBAR?
Time for a good bank, setting one up just requires a licence. Last I looked, when IB was thinking of prosecuting a bank for accomplice to evasion, it cost a million. Punts.
Banks do not do well in Kondratieff winters.
Nearly all the world’s banks depend upon their country of registration for solvency and liquidity. That is why fiat currencies are devaluing. That is why inflation will be picking up for food etc.
Welcome to the new world order. Deflation of big ticket items, lack of capital and rising prices. Economies that without the FIRE section, will be 1980 in size. 1980. If we are lucky. It can get worse than that. But I do not wish to depress you. Make lifestyle plans according to what you really think will be happeneing over the next twenty to thirty years. Japan is still deflating, twenty years on. Critics may say Japan is different. But they are wrong. They were merely the first casualty of the banking weapon. Most of the biggest companies in the world used to be banks. Imagine a world where there is no lending at all. No new credit. All existing credit is “renewed” because otherwise, capital is impaired. Existing companies have to compete with start ups, funded by profits, while the existing companies have to pay interest. At normal interest rates, which are twice the current level. This is our world, once the Basle accords apply with more conservative reserve requirements. Decades of that.
Lifestyle choices?