The End of the European Dream | 276 comments (274 topical, 2 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: The End of the European Dream (none / 1)

The Irish way is to plámás him into thinking what a great guy he is and that great guys do great things and one good turn deserves another...

Interestingly the Irish American vote is a swing constituency and could be very useful to Obama in securing his own re-election and that of a dem congress. Visiting the oul sod won't do him a bit of harm and throwing a few billion Ireland's way by way of low interest loans won't cost him real money in terms of his budgetary and debt problems...

Index of Frank's Diaries

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Sun May 8th, 2011 at 09:09:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The End of the European Dream (4.00 / 4)

what a great guy he is

But he knows that! That is and has been his stock in trade.

Giethner not vetoing the haircut would have cost the US Government nothing -- it just would have angered the banksters who own the government. But loaning the Irish $50 billion would be no problem were it not for the debt cap. But the histrionics over raising the debt ceiling are likely to drag on towards August until or unless the Dems again cave on sanity, and even if they do, the self styled "fiscal conservatives" are likely to howl at "foreign aid"! Perhaps he can get Ben and Timmy to figure a way to slip a loan to Ireland that is similar to the AIG bailout. That is probably your best bet.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sun May 8th, 2011 at 10:01:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Calling Jake... (none / 1)

I'm not sure that a loan to Ireland would constitute an addition to the USA's total debt (and debt ceiling). It would be a credit on the books of the Fed and a provision of liquidity rather an asset transfer?

Index of Frank's Diaries

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Sun May 8th, 2011 at 10:08:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Calling Jake... (none / 1)

If it does not require selling more Treasury Bonds it is much more likely. I don't know. The Fed's Maiden Lane facilities are assets also....

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sun May 8th, 2011 at 10:34:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Calling Jake... (4.00 / 2)

Then they'd have to lean on the Fed. But yes, it's easier to hide things like that on the books of your central bank than on the Treasury's books.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sun May 8th, 2011 at 03:26:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Calling Jake... (4.00 / 2)

Just use a FOREX swap with a slightly skewed present value to hide the loan. Then when the swap blows up you can still fleece Ireland...

Economics is politics by other means

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon May 9th, 2011 at 02:10:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

The End of the European Dream | 276 comments (274 topical, 2 editorial, 0 hidden)

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