Got this via email. Great idea, now why am I not older...?
Instead of giving Seven Billion Euro’s to the Irish Banks who will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.
You can call it the Republican Retirement Plan:
There are about 1 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them 7 million Euro apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:
1) They MUST retire. One million job openings – Unemployment fixed
2) They MUST buy a new car. One million cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed
3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed
4) They MUST send their kids to school/college/university – Crime rate fixed
5) They MUST buy 100 Euro of alcohol/tobacco a week …. and there’s your money back in duty/tax etc.
It is the month of August, a resort town sits next to the shores of a lake. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one. The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher. The Butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig raiser. The pig raiser takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her “services" on credit. The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there. The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything. At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the Irish Government is doing business today.
Without wishing to sound negative... (note to self, be positive), September continued the downward slide for all in the Estate Agency business, when the figures are analysed.
House prices continue to fall. This has brought about a large number of enquiries from prospective purchasers, but they are slow to follow up on the enquiry with a viewing and consequently, an offer.
There are two reasons for this as I see it.
A lack of confidence is one.
A lack of available finance is the other.
As the banks wait, in zombie-mode, for the NAMA proposals to get past the Green party, no finance is being made available for house purchase.
Or any other purchase for that matter.
Why Lenihan and Cowen think that giving tax-payers money to the bozos that run the banks is beyond me.
Why they think that over-paying the banks for these toxic liabilities is a good idea is truly beyond belief.
Yet it seems that the fate of almost €60billion of our money hangs on a decision of a movement that does not really have a coherent policy on anything.
That said, if the Greens bring down this Government, I will give them my vote next time out...I may even consider joining the party if they can dethrone Cowen, Lenihan and Coughlan.
Protestations from the Govt. that “The pace of decline is slowing” (i.e. things are getting worse more slowly, but still getting worse) are meant to be good news!
Figures speak the truth and for our part, the figures this month show the continuing decline in activity in the market.
September 2008Viewings 119Offers 43
September 2009 Viewings 71Offers 14
Remember September last year was a poor month anyway, as the economy had started to go into free-fall.
Even still viewings are down 40%.
Offers are down 68%.
Economists predict that levels of negative equity and inability to repay mortgages will increase over the near future, thus driving down the price of property further.
We need a new approach to our country’s regeneration. The current lot have shown no initiative or leadership.
In an effort to sound off on a positive note, they need to go...now!
July’s fall in activity continued into August, with an almost blanket ban on new finance being operated by the banks.
Unlike other months, the number of offers has finally collapsed. Although viewings are marginally up, the rate of offer is half what it was last month.
Continuing uncertainty over the Govt. plans for NAMA, uncertainty over Govt. plans for the banking sector, even uncertainty over the continuation of the Govt. itself has all fed the fear and confusion that is stalking the property market at present.
Banks that are looking for the taxpayer to bail them out are putting increasing pressure on their clients who have encountered difficulty, with new account managers being appointed to deal with small businesses that have cash-flow difficulties. Of course, as we can see with Liam Carroll and others, the larger debts are being cared for sympathetically until they are “sold” to NAMA and the problem becomes ours!
Following a fairly upbeat end to June, I am afraid to say that the momentum has not been maintained.
Like the current weather, just as things look to be getting better, they take a turn for the worse.
Any notion that finance was becoming more available seems to have been a temporary blip.
It is now harder to get finance for a property purchase than to get water in the middle of the Sahara.
It is hard to see how anything is going to sort the current situation.
NAMA will not work in my opinion.
Whatever “discount” the Govt. applies to the distressed loans will need to be made up in a cash injection in any event.
So we, the taxpayer, will end up paying full price for these “toxic assets”, which are really “toxic liabilities”!(See this article re same!)
That however, is a whole different blog-post.
This lack of finance has caused a number of Sale Agreed transactions to fall through.
It has also put a virtual halt to new viewers. Very few buyers are being approved for mortgage, so we are limited to the pool of potential buyers that have secured loan approval already.
This is a rapidly diminishing pool, as many approved 2 months ago are not being re-approved when reviewed and quite a few bought in June.
This is reflected in the figures. Both viewings and offers are down on those of June.
Year on year, viewings are near half of July 2008, although offers are slightly above 2008 figures, emphasising the focused approach taken by the current crop of value-seeking bidders.
July 2008:Viewings 94Offers 24
July 2009:Viewings 50Offers 26
Prices are way down on last year. At least 10% year on year and up to 20% since peak.
Plenty of people want to buy at these reduced prices. They see low interest rates. They are paying up to €10,000 a year in dead-money rent. Through no fault of their own, they are unable to get finance due to the current state of the banks.
Meanwhile, the Government is on holidays. The country is sinking further into the mire. The fundamental problems of the economy have not been addressed. We are being asked to pour up to €90 billion into the banks to support their errors over the past years. I have said before, let them fail! Set up a State bank and channel the money into that. The Civil Service cannot do a worse job than the current lot of bankers. Somehow, I don’t think a Cowen lead Fianna Fail have the stomach for that. Change is needed.
