True Finns Party Chairman: Greece, Ireland and Portugal Ruined; Gangrene Spreads; Enron Looks Simple; Spain Next Zombie

True Finns party chairman, Timo Soini launched the most scathing and accurate attack yet against Jean-Claude Trichet, Jean-Claude Junker, and the ECB for its policy raping taxpayers of various countries to pay back German, French, UK, and US banks that made stupid loans for stupid reasons.

Please read the Wall Street Journal article Why I Won't Support More Bailouts by Timo Soini. There is much more than this somewhat lengthy snip that follows.

When I had the honor of leading the True Finn Party to electoral victory in April, we made a solemn promise to oppose the so-called bailouts of euro-zone member states. These bailouts are patently bad for Europe, bad for Finland and bad for the countries that have been forced to accept them. Europe is suffering from the economic gangrene of insolvency—both public and private. And unless we amputate that which cannot be saved, we risk poisoning the whole body.

At the risk of being accused of populism, we'll begin with the obvious: It is not the little guy that benefits. He is being milked and lied to in order to keep the insolvent system running. He is paid less and taxed more to provide the money needed to keep this Ponzi scheme going. Meanwhile, a kind of deadly symbiosis has developed between politicians and banks: Our political leaders borrow ever more money to pay off the banks, which return the favor by lending ever-more money back to our governments, keeping the scheme afloat.

In a true market economy, bad choices get penalized. Not here. When the inevitable failure of overindebted euro-zone countries came to light, a secret pact was made.

Instead of accepting losses on unsound investments—which would have led to the probable collapse and national bailout of some banks—it was decided to transfer the losses to taxpayers via loans, guarantees and opaque constructs such as the European Financial Stability Fund, Ireland's NAMA and a lineup of special-purpose vehicles that make Enron look simple. Some politicians understood this; others just panicked and did as they were told.

The money did not go to help indebted economies. It flowed through the European Central Bank and recipient states to the coffers of big banks and investment funds.

Further contrary to the official wisdom, the recipient states did not want such "help," not this way. The natural option for them was to admit insolvency and let failed private lenders, wherever they were based, eat their losses.

That was not to be. As former Finance Minister Brian Lenihan recently revealed, Ireland was forced to take the money. The same happened to Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates, although he may be less forthcoming than Mr. Lenihan about admitting it.

Jean-Claude Trichet, Jean-Claude Junker Both Liars

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet and Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg PM and Head Euro-Zone Finance Minister are both blatant liars when it comes to who benefits from these bailouts.

At least Junker has the decency to admit he is a liar. For details please see Jean-Claude Juncker, Euro-Zone Head Finance Minister says "When it becomes serious, you have to lie"

Ireland Forced to Take Money

Timo Soini makes the claim, denied by the ECB, that "Ireland was forced to take money".

Soini is not the only one making that claim. Former Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, ousted in the most recent election also makes that claim.

Of course Trichet dismisses Lenihan's claims of 'betrayal'

Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet has dismissed claims by former minister for finance Brian Lenihan that the bank betrayed Ireland immediately before the EU-IMF bailout.

Mr Trichet said the facts showed that the ECB had sided with Ireland in its difficulties and that the bank’s support for the State’s financial system was without parallel.

A high-level euro zone source said Mr Lenihan’s remarks were deemed “unfair” within the ECB, which is supporting Ireland’s banks to the tune of some €150 billion. This was particularly so given pressure from “powerful governments” against the provision of such extraordinary support for banks, the source said.

A further reflection of the bank’s commitment was that its backing for Irish financial institutions “could be seen as going beyond the ECB’s legal mandate”. The source said it was known that Mr Lenihan made his remarks some time before they were reported over the Easter weekend. His comments were therefore perceived as “election rhetoric” so the reaction in Frankfurt is “calm”.

Beyond ECB's Legal Mandate

Please read that last paragraph closely. The ECB readily admits it went beyond its legal mandate to screw the citizens of Ireland, forcing them to bear the brunt of stupid loans made by greedy German, French, UK, and US banks to Ireland, Portugal, and Greece.

No Respect for Lenihan

Lenihan deserves no respect. He should have stepped forward to say something when he had the chance.

Only after his party was forced out of office in a crushing election defeat did Lenihan bother to say anything.

Enda Kenny Sells Irish Citizens Down the River

Enda Kenny, Ireland's new Prime Minister had a chance to tell the ECB and EU to stuff it. Instead of taking advantage of voter sentiment that ousted former Brian Cowen in a massive landslide, Kenny sided with the thugs who want to rape Irish citizens.

As long as we are discussing liars and the lies they tell we may as well point out this whopper: Ireland’s Prime Minister Kenny Says Nation Can Handle Debts

That was written on May 5.

Today we see the headline Ireland ramps up push for better bailout deal

Ireland warned on Monday it would need more favorable terms to rid itself of its debt troubles and said it was confident of securing a cut in the interest it pays for its EU aid without conceding ground on tax rates.

"We carry a heavy burden of debt. Without strong growth, questions of sustainability will remain," Prime Minister Enda Kenny told a special meeting of Ireland's parliament in celebration of Europe Day.

Kenny said he was confident that Europe would give Ireland a cut in the interest rate it is charging for its loans. Athens got a 1 percentage point cut in March.

Edna Kenny is a Liar Too

Four days ago Kenny said "the nation can handle its debts".

Today Kenny says "questions of sustainability remain"

Which is it?

Actually, there is no question. Here's the real deal: what cannot be paid back won't.
There should be no cut in interest rates. Ireland should default and the sooner it does the better off it will be.

Irish taxpayers should not suffer from voting out one set of clowns in a landslide election only to have the new set of clowns adopt the identical policy.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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