Posted by Scott on January 7, 2009, 11:36 am, in reply to "NY Times: The Irish Economy’s Rise Was Steep, and the Fall Was Fast "
159.134.204.130
Thanks, Jack. This article got quite a bit of coverage in Ireland. The question of Sean Dunne's solvency is directly tied to the solvency of the banks. They're still there because the government keeps digging the taxpayers in deeper and deeper.
We'll all be scrambling for pennies to keep Sean from going bust.
I'd feel better about the whole thing if the government insisted on mass resignations before handing over my cash to the bankers and developers who got us into this hole. That and a bit of vision for the country laying out a future path for the nation.
But, no, the solution is to bleed us all to keep Mr. Dunne from going under and no more plan than that. Hold on and pray Obama really can walk on water.
Scott
--Previous Message--
: T’S 3 a.m. at Doheny & Nesbitt, a favorite
: watering hole of Dublin’s political and
: business elite, and the property tycoon Sean
: Dunne stoops to retrieve a penny from the
: pub’s grimy floor.
:
: One would think that Mr. Dunne, Ireland’s
: best-known building developer, would be in
: bed at this hour. It’s a weeknight, after
: all, and he has meetings that begin before
: first light.
:
: What’s more, the Irish economy, pummeled by
: the most severe housing bust in Europe, has
: collapsed. And the gossip around town is
: that Mr. Dunne, whose brazen deal-making and
: Donald Trump-like lifestyle epitomized the
: country’s euphoric boom, might be going
: bankrupt.
:
: But, no matter, a penny is a penny.
:
: “I am never, never too proud to pick a penny
: up from the floor,” Mr. Dunne said. He is on
: perhaps his fifth pint of Guinness, capping
: a rollicking night of Champagne cocktails,
: followed by a wine-soaked dinner — yet his
: thick brogue is clear of even the faintest
: slurring.
:
: “I grew up with nothing and I know the value
: of money,” he adds. “The Celtic Tiger may be
: dead and if the banking crisis continues I
: could be considered insolvent. But the one
: thing that I have is my wife and children —
: that they can’t take away from me.”
:
: It is not known whether Mr. Dunne will fall
: victim to today’s world financial
: catastrophe, but there is no doubt that his
: country has.
:
: Everything, it seems, has grown worse here.
: The recession started earlier and its bite
: has been deeper. Housing prices have fallen
: by as much as 50 percent. Bank shares have
: plummeted by more than 90 percent.
: Unemployment is approaching 10 percent.
:
: The roots of Ireland’s fall date to more
: than 20 years ago, when a clutch of
: economists, politicians and civil servants
: put their heads together in this very pub
: and planted the philosophical seeds for the
: Irish economic miracle.
:
: Known widely as the “Doheny & Nesbitt
: School of Economics,” these beery musings
: soon became government policy that chopped
: taxes in half, sharply reduced import duties
: and embraced foreign investment — a radical
: transformation that gave birth to the Celtic
: Tiger and perhaps the most open and vibrant
: economy in Europe... (con't)
:
: Click link to read more.
:
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