We’re back discussing the demonstrations against the government. This is fascinating. Once again, I want to assure my good readers that I asked permission to publish all these blog posts. Single blog posts, sometimes I ask about, sometimes I don’t. But to use this many is in my mind a misuse of reblogging when done without permission.
James Pilant
The long term social effects of the crisis on the individual are discussed here.
(I received direct permission to reblog all of these posts from the period of the crisis.)
James Pilant
This is Homophilosophicus’ theme to the crisis, his take on the moral of the story.
James Pilant
This entry is eye witness to one of the demonstrations. I particularly liked this one.
James Pilant
The Irish Crisis. Homophilosophicus explains the unjust nature of the agreement saddling Ireland with debt for years to come. (I’ve reblogged this one before, but I want them all in order.)
It is very rare to see blogging on site in the middle of a crisis. This is good reading.
James Pilant
Homophilosophicus has given me permission to blog all of his posts during the crisis. He lives in Ireland and is taking part in the demonstrations against the government austerity measures and loan guarantees to the European Union. I’ve gone back to the beginning of the crisis which by his blog would be the 30th. So, I’ll reblog all of them in order. For convenience sake, I’m going to number them. This is more for me than you. I want to get these up in the exact order.
James Pilant
My previous post (actually about twenty minutes ago) discusses the Irish debt crisis. But I am not on the scene, I don’t live in Ireland. But homopilosophicus is a citizen and writes from there. Here is his take on the crisis. It’s intelligent and it’s a person, not a media company, not a corporation. He’s not selling anything or wanting you to do anything except understand.
James Pilant
This is from the Associated Press –
Ireland’s international bailout boosted its bank stocks Monday, but outraged many hard-pressed taxpayers, who questioned why the government’s pension reserves must be ravaged as part of a deal that burdens the whole country with the mistakes of a rich elite.
Shares in Ireland’s banks rose sharply as markets were encouraged by the bailout’s immediate focus on injecting €10 billion into the cash-strapped lenders out of a total of €67.5 billion ($89 billion) in loans.
But the Irish were shocked by a key condition for the rescue — that the government use €17.5 billion of its own cash and pension reserves to shore up its public finances, which have been overwhelmed by recession and exceptional costs of a runaway bank-bailout effort.
Opposition leaders and economists warned that the EU-IMF credit line’s average interest rate of 5.8 percent would be too high to repay. They also questioned why senior bondholders of Ireland’s struggling banks — chiefly other banks in Britain, Germany and the U.S. — still weren’t being asked to bear some costs.
Here’s what’s been happening. About twenty years ago, the Irish bought in to the Friedman Economic Theories (FREE MARKET) and freed their system from the chains of regulation. After that, the economy took off like a rocket. Actually the economy did take off but only for certain sectors of the economy particularly the financial industry. All that rocket climb was just a bubble of speculation and when the cloud of dust settled the state banks were deep in the hole. The Irish nationalized the banks and have since bailed them out to the tune of 100 billion dollars. This is smaller than the the U.S. bailout (TARP) but from a very, very much smaller nation (4.5 million people).
They are getting to a loan to keep their economy afloat from other European nations. To get it, they have to put the nation’s pensions funds up as a guarantee. People are unhappy about this.
But here’s the kicker. This is what is really making people mad. The bondholders of these banks are not required to pay for any portion of this at all. Zero!
If they had turned away the huge profits made during the “Celtic Lion” period like a benevolent aristocracy, I might cut them some slack but they didn’t quibble about taking the money. And now the Irish people, in particular, the ones that never profited from the whole economic de-regulation, speculation nightmare, are going to pay for it.
James Pilant
I recommended this on Facebook. I quoted a paragraph with pleasure in another entry on this blog.
It’s not enough. I’ve waited a long time to see this kind of writing and here it is – Christianity with teeth, not some Bible thumping loon talking about the innocuous undefinable “family values” while safely giving a pass to the rapacious businessmen in his congregation. I say to you that he has his reward.
I am honored to, once again, pass on these words.
James Pilant
Homophilosophicus writing in his blog quoting the Prophet Amos. (Jeremiah is my favorite.) The first decades of the 21st century are truly the years of the Old Testament Prophets. All around us, uncertainty, stupidity and greed flourish.
“They do not know how to do right, says the Lord, those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds (Amos 3:10).”
Those of whom the writer of Amos speaks are not merely petty criminals, for they live in strongholds. Amos is referring to those who rule from their unassailable citadels, who fill up their treasuries with the wealth they have taken from the powerless by violence and theft. It is evident that this relationship between the powerful and the powerless has not changed; in fact it has become enshrined within modern economic systems. There are those who, by virtue of their monopoly on power alone, assert the right to grow fat from the labour of the powerless. In Ireland we have seen that the government have stolen from the people. They have taken tax from the people and they have failed to provide for the welfare of the people from that revenue; this is nothing other than theft. Without proper consultation with the people the government has gambled and lost billions of euros from the community purse, and have successfully lined their own pockets. This also is theft. By maintaining systems of injustice they have demonstrated their violence against the vulnerable and the weak. Ignorance is not an excuse for what they have done, but it would seem to be the case that “they do not know how to do right.” Each and every member of the present government of Ireland comes from a privileged background, a background that has taken wealth for granted and considered the accumulation of money the highest virtue. It stands to reason then that these people have suffered from a severe form of political myopia in their regard of the poor. They have consistently failed to take the needs of the poor into account when they have made decisions ‘for the good of the nation.’ What ‘good’ in this context actually means is that which is ‘economically good for the wealthy.’
Doesn’t this sound like a Minister of God with brains? All we got around here is an editorial writer explaining that the Medal of Honor has become feminized!
James Pilant
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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