Anglo is splitting in two

Posted on September 8, 2010 by machholz

Anglo Irish Bank will be split into an asset recovery bank and a funding bank, the Department of Finance said today.

The recovery bank, or so-called bad bank, will be eventually be sold or its assets will be run down over a period of time.

The funding bank will be separated from Anglo’s loan assets and will be owned directly by the Minister for Finance. It will not engage in any lending but will continue to accept and manage deposits.

This is a variation of the proposals from Anglo’s board. It wanted to split the bank into an asset management unit, which would have looked after the bank’s “lower quality” assets that remained after transfers to Nama were complete, and a good bank, which would manage the performing loans, retain the bank’s deposit funding and engaged in new lending.
source http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0908/breaking10.html

Comment:

This is a prime example of accounting gimmickry
The tragedy goes on at Anglo Irish Bank the bright sparks at the department of Finance have decided to allow Anglo to metamorphose into a good bank and a bad bank
This is yet another example of a totally out of touch Minster that is just not living on the same planet as the rest of the Irish people
Having pumped billions down this toxic toilet he is now going to double the cost of running the same basket case
We the people are still waiting to be told exactly where did the 25 billion go that he has already pumped into Anglo go? That the minster says is “Gone”!
The money isn’t just gone, Disappeared, somebody got this money so where did it go who is this somebody.
Splitting this Toxic toilet will not make the problem of Anglo go away
The “Brand” Anglo is toxic and it should be shut down now .

Posted in "hedge fund on steroids, Anglo Irish Bank, accounting gimmickry | Tagged | Leave a comment

The money merry-go-round that is Anglo- NAMA

Posted on September 8, 2010 by machholz

Has NAMA received a bailout to cover almost €300m of interest payments due 7 days ago?

By http://namawinelake.wordpress.com/author/namawinelake/

It came as a surprise earlier this year that NAMA was given a €250m “recoupable advance” authorised by the Department of Finance. This was in addition to the €49m state investment in the NAMA special purpose vehicle and €51m of private investment in the same. When responding to Richard Bruton’s question in the Oireachtas which prompted the revelation of the €250m advance (though the next day it was confirmed in the May Exchequer Statement) Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said “The second [payment to NAMA – the first being the €49m capital payment to the NAMA SPV] was an advance of €250 million, which must be repaid to the Central Fund by 31 October 2010, to provide the Agency with a liquidity buffer to meet working capital demands pending the establishment of its own funding programme”. So next month NAMA is expected to repay €250m.
Of course NAMA was required to pay on 1st September, 2010 the coupon on its NAMA bonds and a rough estimate is that it needed to pay €290m (see below). The €290m is probably an underestimate as it appears NAMA has been transferring tranches in, erm, mini-tranches and the dates shown are the dates when the total tranche has been declared transferred. Luckily for NAMA, the first coupon on the subordinated debt is only payable on 1st March 2011 – I say luckily because the subordinated debt has quite a nasty rate of interest at the 10-year government bond rate – that’s the one that’s at 6.1% today – plus 0.75% – if banks are getting 7% per annum on subordinated debt for 10 years then why not having the debt honoured at the end if NAMA makes a loss might not be such an issue?

Comment

These type of moneys are regularly transferred to NAMA and believe it or not Anglo Irish Bank as well
Is there anyone asking the questions why we are paying these huge sums out to an entity that has no idea what to do with the countless of boxes of documents coming from the Banks that are supposed to contain the relevant deeds and convaincing documents needed to show ownership of property and any outstanding charges on the properties concerned .
I am reliably informed that this documentation is no where near complete and the question has to be asked why are NAMA paying for property that has no proper documentation?
At this stage we the taxpayers may have an even bigger problem on our hands if we are taking control of property that has no proper convaincing, no proper or up to date deeds and that may in most cases have been compromised by having multiple charges already over the same properties
Of course the banks are delighted to be rid of such toxic assets.

Posted in "The-end-of-democracy", NAMA, NAMA Fraud, NAMA accounts, NAMA board members, NAMALAND, namawinelake | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“A picture is worth a thousand words”

Posted on September 8, 2010 by machholz

Europe’s biggest can of worms is overflowing again.
Fears that Europe’s banks are vulnerable to losses on risky government bond investments are sending shivers through the European bond markets, especially Ireland and Greece. Investors are dumping risky bonds tied to weaker European economies and crowding into the safe havens of German and British government bonds.
Ireland, which is grappling with an increasingly expensive bail-out of troubled lender Anglo Irish Bank, is the single worst performer Tuesday.
The premium that Ireland has to pay over Germany to borrow from investors in the bond market has hit its highest level since the euro was created in 1999 (Specifically, 3.75 percentage points compared with 3.47 percentage points on Monday.) Prices of Irish bonds have fallen, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year Irish bond above 6%. (Bond prices and yields move inversely.)
Greece isn’t faring much better. The yield on its 10-year note is nearly 12%, while its own “risk premium” over Germany has also blown higher. Portugal’s spreads are also weaker. Credit-default swaps for Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece have all jumped in price, suggesting investors are more worried about these countries defaulting on their debts

Source http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2010/09/07/europes-bond-market-tanks-again/

Struggling with the euro zone’s biggest budget deficit relative to its gross domestic product at more than 14% last year, Irish authorities are also grappling with the ballooning cost of bailing out the banks, especially state-owned Anglo Irish—a bill that has already hit €33 billion ($42.55 billion), or roughly 20% of Ireland’s GDP.

Source http://wsj.com

ON THE radio on Monday, Brian Lenihan spoke of “not showing his hand” to the European Commission. He suggested that we in Ireland had to “hold our nerve”. These phrases are not normally used in economic policy — rather, they come straight from the world of poker.
This language is appropriate as it probably best sums up the Government’s policy throughout the banking crisis — it has all been a big bluff.
Yesterday, the financial markets reacted to the gambler’s words by selling Irish bonds, thus driving the yield (at one stage) up from 5.78pc to 6.15pc.
Yields came down to 6.01pc, following rumours that the European Central Bank was buying Irish bonds. We are fast becoming a vassal state of the ECB, the only institution prepared to buy Irish bonds.
The ECB is doing this for one reason — to protect the bondholders of Anglo from the default which has to come. In this little game, we issue expensive IOUs at 6pc that the ECB buys with money it prints for nothing to keep open zombie banks that don’t lend. The ECB is doing this not to protect you, but to protect rogue creditors who have no right to expect that they will be paid.
source http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2010/09/08/we-dont-have-an-economic-policy-its-all-just-a-big-bluff

Ireland has effectively nationalised its financial system for two years: it will guarantee deposits and debts for the country’s six biggest banks until 2010. This means it is assuming potential liabilities of around EUR550bn, compared with existing government debt of EUR40bn and overall GDP of EUR160bn. The move has increased pressure on the UK authorities to boost the size of the deposit guarantee.
The move was designed to shore up rapidly dwindling confidence in the banking sector. Irish financial sector shares plummeted early this week amid fears that it is particularly dependent on the frozen interbank market; loan to deposit ratios are 150% in Ireland compared with 130% in the rest of the EU, Sebastian Orsi of Merrion pointed out in the FT. Banks have been “bleeding money” as the Irish property and construction markets have tanked, noted Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Daily Telegraph. Ireland has become the first eurozone member to slide into recession now that the property bubble has burst and consumption has slumped.
What next?
By effectively betting its economy, Ireland has “certainly upped the stakes in the confidence game that is banking”, as Alphaville said in the FT. The hope is that the guarantee will improve Irish banks’ access to funds on world markets. But Ireland may be in for a bumpy ride. Note that the banks’ assets are highly concentrated in “fast-fading” UK and Irish property, said Lex in the FT. At Anglo-Irish Bank, the exposure to these two sectors is 80% and at Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish it is 71% and 60% respectively. And if markets keep withholding wholesale funds from “property plays”, then the government “may have to reconsider that guarantee”.
source https://info.moneyweek.com/article.php?p_id=10807

Comment :
“A picture is worth a thousand words”

I have posted the various sources above in support my own opinion that the government are totally on the wrong economic path and what’s even worse they are hell bent on sticking with this disastrous policy all logic seems to have disappeared and we are becoming slaves to the mantra we must spin ourselves out of this mess no matter what
Brian Lenihans language is increasingly that of a gambler (read DavidMcWilliams latest posting on this Link above)
David is one of the country’s finest economists and it would appear this government are choosing to ignore his sound advice just like they did on the eve of the first bank blanket guarantees
This is the time when the government should be getting the best minds in the country to come up with a real solutions to the financial crises that is after all their own making
Whether you agree with me or not, that facts are the well informed lenders (Bond Traders) of the world certainly do so, and what’s more they are getting very nervous at the lack of this governments realistic economic road map
The constant dirp drip feed of ever more disastrous figures emanating from Anglo and NAMA should frighten all of us
The Governments belligerence and a misplaced sense of loyalty to their pals a la Galway tent has to be abandoned pronto, and these gamblers must face the music themselves
The Irish nation cannot afford the commitments made by incompetent government minsters that are overwhelmed by the sheer complexity that is the Derivatives market
It is just plain stupid to expect civil servants who have no training in this field to advice party indoctrinated con men to understand these financial nuclear bombs
There are only a hand full of people in the world that understand these complex financial instruments ,even after 10 years of market participation myself I still don’t know anybody in the field that has successfully traded their way into profit
These financial instruments were created by the largest financial corporations in the world (AIG, JP Morgan, Citi etc and they were designed as far as I can make out to protect themselves as they were the market makers as well as the insurer and we all know that insurance companies are notorious in looking after themselves
the bottom line here is the markets have now copped on to the spin the Irish Government have been spewing out on the world’s airways and they Ireland Ink has a set repayment capability and that is now breached and any further surprises coming from Anglo Irish and Allied or Bank of Ireland is going to push this little country over the Default Bridge
And with the current Captain on the Irish Titanic ignoring the warnings of Icebergs dead ahead what does he do?
Call for more Ice for his pals cocktail,s

Posted in "The-end-of-democracy", "hedge fund on steroids, A New Irish Citizens Political party, AAA. An open letter to the Taoiseach, Action on unemployment now!, Allied Irish Banks, Anglo Irish Bank, Bailing out the banks, Banking, Brian Clowen, Brian Lenihian, Government-guaranteed for Banks X Bank of Ireland X institutional investors X mortgage, Irish Bond prices and yields, accounting gimmickry, action | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spike Milligan

Posted on September 8, 2010 by machholz

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Don’t believe a word they say

Posted on September 7, 2010 by machholz

The great and Mighty of our country were at pains to tell us the humble citizens that everything was going great and we should continue to buy over priced shoeboxes from their pals in the building industry

The Financial services industry sent out their heavy’s to support that same claim.

Then we had the political gombeenmen come out and with an eye on their own political futures they supported their Fuehrer’s lies

Fast forward to present day and we now have a new man sitting in the Fuehrer’s chair
This man was given this privilege because of services rendered to the previous Fuehrer Ahern
He has turned out to be just as bad and not been elected to the position by the people, he has certainly lived up to the expectations of the previous Fuehrer but sadely not of the citizens of this country
We have had a change of personalities but no change of the policies of deceit, accounts gimmickry, Cronyism no accountability, and whatever you’re having yourself, make mine double that attitude seems to be the norm with the political élite of our country.
We still have the vested interests spouting out their spin and mantra supporting their version of events and solutions for the country, conveniently forgetting that it was they who caused this disaster in the first place.
This doesn’t make any difference to them as they try to socialize the blame and privatize the gain from the situation we are now in

Thrown in with some great examples of one law for the rich and one for the poor for good measure!
This about sums up, the current state of affairs, and I here that we can expect a change of the main personalities again soon.
But this is not the answer to our problems we need to change the political system not just the personalities as I have outlined so many times before in this blog
as we see to-day we are been fed drip, drip ,drip lies, again and my head is spinning from all the corners we are supposed to be turning and all the zeros we keep hearing about but it’s the figures that we are not getting to see and hear about that I am most concerned about
The huge derivative positions from the various banks that are supposed to not have and the their enormous losses that are been hidden from the Irish public
Again I have wrote so many times about these losses and I call on the Finance minster to come clean and disclose the true figures now and not in a drip drip manor in the next 2 years

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Movement for political change

Posted on September 6, 2010 by machholz

Movement for political change
We the ordinary Citizens of Ireland are bombarded with the latest government proposals and their incompetence is blatant for all to see. From the establishment of the biggest fraud in Irish history (NAMA) to the government’s unilateral decision to guarantee Anglo Irish Bank and the other corrupt financial institutions within the state, without offering the people the opportunity to have their say and after two years no criminal charges have been brought on those responsible for the total collapse of the nation’s financial independence.
Even to-day, 18 months later we still have no idea how much this Toxic Bank is going to cost us!
All we here from the Government is that we should thrust them!
This is sheer madness it makes no business sense to take over any business with first doing due diligence to establish exactly the true financial health of that business.
From the start we were told by Brian Lenihan that the total cost would be 3,500,000,000 billion
We were told 4 weeks ago that 22,500,000,000 was gone forever down this black hole and we now hear that another 10 billion is needed to plug this toxic toilet
Over this weekend we are again told that the final figure might be 70,000,000,000 billion
Clearly we cannot believe a word from this Minister of Finance or the rest of the government
We now, as a nation, find ourselves at the mercy of international bond holders who are now dictating how the country is run and the government have abandoned their sworn duty in the Irish constitution to cherish all the children of the nation equally. The current Government is complicit with the banks and the developers in causing the property bubble. All regulation was abandoned and now the citizens of Ireland are forced to pick up the pieces of what is now the largest fraud ever to be carried out in the history of the state. This has so far all gone unpunished!
We, the ordinary citizens, now face long-term unemployment; savage health service cuts, emigration, loss of our homes, evermore tax hikes, and constant displays of incompetence and no accountability from our pampered TDs, who have now become drunk with their own delusion of importance and aloofness.
The current political system serves the political elite that encompass all the established political parties of this country very well and indeed makes millionaires out of most of them. They enjoy allowances and pensions the ordinary citizens can only dream of. There should be a culture of real accountability instead of an air of entitlement along with the family dynasties. The current Dail members enjoy living in a parallel universe where they are just clocking up time and entitlements whilst sharing in the longest lottery in history.
It’s time for the citizens of Ireland to make a stand and say enough is enough and make these changes happen.
This country is our country and not the property of the political élite to be divided up in a musical chairs system that has left the citizens of Ireland with no choice but to choose between Twiddle Dumb and Twiddle Dee! Just listen to the incompetent opposition parties remember Fianna Fail would not have been able to do so much damage and get away with it if they were as capable as they make themselves out to be for our next government
They expect to just walk in and take control just because there are called something different than Fianna Fail or the Green Party.
Our children deserve better, help us make that change, help us to bring that real alternative to every home in Ireland.
We invite all like minded groups around the country to look at this PDF document Movement for political change manifesto (Wicklow Branch ) , please read it and if you are inclined to agree with us then let us come together in the spirit of true patriotism and help take back our country from the vested interests that have made it into this financial wasteland
We are also looking from our fellow citizen’s help, to come up with a Name for this citizen’s movement. We welcome any and all suggestions please send your proposals to e-mail address provided
Our proposals are for real alternatives to the current system of no accountability, cronyism and gombeenism and if you find yourself in agreement with some or all of our core proposals to change the political system of Ireland for the better then join us
We propose to hold a meeting at the end of September in Wicklow Town and othertowns throughout  the country in time  ( details to be posted soon ) and in the meantime you can contact me at this e-mail address 1machholz@gmail.com
So please do come and support t us instead of relying of the corrupt political system that has lost all credibility.

The time has now come for you to take up the challenge and not just complain to your friends and family
Take action, make a start, and contact us now
Thank you
Mobile phone 0860680042

Posted in A New Irish Citizens Political party, An Open Manifesto, Movement for political change | Tagged , | Leave a comment

If this happens in America

Posted on September 6, 2010 by machholz

If this can happen in America
What hope have we here in Ireland if something goes wrong with Shell in the west of Ireland?
Here in sleepy old Ireland we don’t have anything like of this kind of investigative media / journalism
Just to prove the point did you know the country’s growth exports this year are “our chemical industry exports “and these companies are not Irish but US corporate giants
Recently we heard that the BP oil spill was capped and that the oil was “dispersed “
But exactly what does that mean? I remember hearing them say they were using some chemicals to do this job and then no more news.
Obama Comes on TV and tell the world that it’s all over and America has overcome this challenge once again
well now here we have a chemical called Corexit 9500 that BP is using to Disperse this oil but already we are getting reports about the toxic fallout of this chemical from (Corexit has started eating through boats in the Gulf)(PDF)
This company is like a state within a state and its track record leaves a lot of questions unanswered
The controls that are supposed to be in place have to be questioned ?
When you consider the controls that were supposed to be in place for the financial sector
as a sector that is supposed to spearhead the Irish exports you could argue that the government is likely to bow to pressure from these chemical giants to lay off with the regulation
to thrust them is one thing but control is better don’t you think ?

PDF)
corexit_9500_uscueg.539287

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Fraudsters Drain PayPal Accounts

Posted on September 6, 2010 by machholz

Fraudsters Drain PayPal Accounts Through iTunes

By
Erick Schonfeld Aug 23, 2010

This report caught my attention this morning
If you are using i Tunes this report comming from Twitter might intrest you
in any case do check that your accounts are OK Machholz:

Reports are appearing this morning about a major security hole in iTunes accounts linked to PayPal. At least one group of scammers has found a way to charge thousands of dollars to iTunes accounts through PayPal. One targeted customer told us, “My account was charged over $4700. I called security at PayPal and was told a large number of iTunes store accounts were compromised.” His email was filled with nearly 50 receipts from PayPall for $99.99 each. (Update: they were for “CastleCraft, Dragon Crystals (10000 Pack), Seller: Freeverse, Inc”). He was able to catch it before his bank disbursed funds to PayPal.

But others were not so lucky. A quick search of Twitter and Facebook shows that the problem is not isolated. Joey Bruce on Twitter laments:

Someone hacked my iTunes/paypal acct and drained everything from my bank account. Life is kicking me in the balls while I’m down.

A search of public status updates on Facebook uncovers more people with the same issue:

Darn…what a day! Someone hacked into my itunes account and bought a crap load of downloads and emptied out my paypal account….grrrrr. . . . Paypal is very cooperative but there is just about no way to get ahold of itunes. I did call paypal and they assured me that they had contacted itunes and it was going to be taken care of in my favor.

so apple/itunes had a security breach & someone bought over $500 worth of music through my paypal account. just what i wanted 2 b dealing w/ while in San Diego! AWESOME!!!

Everybody watch your itunes account closely. I just got hacked for almost $1000.00 worth of software, videos and music. Hopefully paypal will refund it all. . . . This happened within the last few hours. Once transaction after another.

At least PayPal is aware of the issue, but it seems like the problem is on the iTunes side.

Update: Apple is in spin mode now and several follow-up reports blame the users for being the subject of a run-of-the-mill phishing scam. While that may be the case (and so far these incidents don’t seem to be very widespread), there are still some things which don’t add up. According to the targeted customer above, in his discussions with PayPal it was clear that PayPal believed the problem was with iTunes. There is a direct billing relationship between PayPal and iTunes, and somehow that was being exploited. If it was simply that his PayPal account was compromised, then a smart scammer would spread the false charges from a variety of sources, not only iTunes. The other reported incidents seemed to follow this same pattern.

Also, he received 46 receipts from Apple itself, noting the same charges for the same items (see the screenshot I added below). I’ve looked at these and compared the header information to legitimate Apple receipts and they appear to be the same. So it was definitely going through iTunes.

That said, there are many iTunes accounts linked to PayPal, and many ways those accounts can be compromised. It could be something as simple as stolen passwords. There is certainly no indication from Apple that there is anything out of the ordinary. If the same thing has happened to you, please share your experience in comments.

Below is a statement from a Paypal spokesperson:

I can confirm that the PayPal system itself has not been compromised, and we haven’t seen any fraudulent or unauthorized logins to the actual PayPal accounts affected by this issue. Unauthorized charges sent through PayPal are being reimbursed.

And from Apple:

We’re always working to enhance account security for iTunes users. If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes you should contact your financial institution about chargebacks for any unauthorized purchases, and be sure to change your iTunes password right away. For tips on protecting your account security visit www.apple.com/support/itunes.

Update 2: An Apple spokesperson who checked into the issue responds: “I can tell you that iTunes has not been hacked. Our servers have not been compromised.”
source http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/23/paypal-itunes-fraud/

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The wild Atlantic

Posted on September 5, 2010 by machholz

claddaghduff near clifden west of Ireland

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Anglo:Shut it Down before it drags us all down

Posted on September 5, 2010 by machholz

What a irony that we the Irish taxpayers ,must now depend on the European Commission to save us from our own corrupt political masters as they continue to try to saddle the taxpayers with more debts from the Toxic Toilet that is Anglo Irish Bank
In the Sunday newspapers we see them awash with photos of Allen Dukes preaching the virtues of keeping this bankrupt Bank alive, of course he would isn’t he doing well sitting on top of his own little fiefdom with the taxpayers having to pay for his every wish!
This Guy is guilty of keeping alive the largest robbery of the Irish Taxpayers in the history of our state and he has the cheek to think we the taxpayers will just turn over and allow him and his lackeys to continue to screw us
Duke’s call to create a good bank and a bad bank is just an attempt to keep himself in a plush job
The man in the moon has more qualifications to run a toiler like Anglo than Duke
I say get rid of Anglo now and Dukes along with it, and all the rest of the cronies that infest that toxic toilet now!
As for NAMA I believe we are heading for a national default we cannot hope to be able to pay the interest on these huge figures that are been bandied about
For god sake we are talking about Billions that is 1000 of millions where is the sanity in all of this?
The government is out of control along with the finances of the country and the criminals that are running the show are the very ones that have caused this sad state of affairs
Somebody has to shout stop
drastic action is now inevitable if we are to save our independence

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