Trout

iTrader: (1)

The scale of Irish debt is a breathtaking - 700% of GDP.

RBS alone (owned by us remember) is owed £40b.

The Irish import £12bn from the UK every year - if they go bust we are totally screwed as most of their debt is in our banks!

what would scooby do

The Irish banks have been giving out stupid amounts of money over the past 15 years without any form of security..

Well they are now going to have to sell a lot of potatoes to cover that bad debt

Trout

iTrader: (1)

I know they drink a lot of Guinness over there - but that is a LOT of Guinness!

Jamz3k

Ireland sucks, we've been telling you this for years, even having days of festive fun trying to push our message but you never listened.

GlesgaKiss

That can't be right, can it? I take it that is total debt, public and private? That's crazy. When you think about it (or at least try), what is debt? How is this money ever going to be repaid? Does it even need to be?

It seems like there's a lot of IOUs sloshing around in the world that will never be anywhere near repaid, not even a fraction of them in real terms. A deficit running nation - a drain on the world with permanent negative cashflow - is the norm, or at least it has been for some time.

Where are the factories, the producers to repay these sums? Will the creditor nations ever wake up to the fact they're long-gone, or does it even matter? Mind boggling stuff.

DCI Gene Hunt

Does this mean we now own Guinness and U2 (as well as RBS etc.)

GlesgaKiss

They're now referred to as the national beer corporation and the national rock band, comrade.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

What?! Have you been drinking some Guinness?

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Yep - we can all book a cheery Irish man for our parties. Last dibs on Terry Wogan.

DCI Gene Hunt

Westlife will still be fecked

Trout

iTrader: (1)

That is total debt.

Add to that the Pensions defecit and the increasing gap and social and health provision of an aging population and the only outlook is a very, very long term bleak economic outlook.

JTaylor

Mrs T is part of the audit team working on a well known Irish bank and will be until the end of Feb. In her professional opinion, they're fcuked.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

These years of crisis create great fees for consultants and Merchant bankers though

what would scooby do

fecked shíte

GlesgaKiss

JTaylor

Suffice to say each of The Big Four are firmly in the black.

The Zohan

Looks like they have put a new man in charge to head up the recovery a man of honour, integrity and compassion!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCb1mGIKRhA

Jamie

Do not worry sinky will sort all the potato munching idiots out

David Lock

It does seem primarily the bank's fault in loaning huge sums for property development which turned sour in a big way. And then the govt bailing them out so the population (including us through the Irish/UK links) became responsible for the debt.

John Redwood was ripping into the Germans yesterday accusing them of stirring things up and unsettling the bond markets and so making it worse for Ireland when they next need to borrow funds in a few months time. And he has a point.

I don't think UK exposure is quite as bad as stated as RBS has made provision for a big hit and UK govt is in for £6b max if the s,hit really hits the fan. But we could do without this right now

My son lives and works in Dublin at the moment and times are tough. His big moan is the cost of everyday things - like Guinness and takeaways!!

I also heard that in most crises TV audiences rise sharply but over there they are falling sharply as it seems the Irish are totally p,issed off with it all

I wish them well.

dl

scooby L

Trout

iTrader: (1)

What are you data points for this?

Do you really believe that if there is an Iceland style collapse that RBS can write down £40bn of debt collateral?!

Leslie

Another year or so with Flash in charge and we would be the same!

Les

scooby L

Interesting to see if Santander will be picking up a share of this possible bad debt in their buy out

David Lock

I think the £6bn UK govt exposure is well established and quoted everywhere. Isn't it 12.5% of the E60bn EC bank thing or something like that at current exchange rates?

Not sure about RBS tbh as I don't know how much they have allowed for.

dl

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Well, at the moment, I'm very glad for the Irish Property crash

I own 1/2 of my mum's houses/land and am in the process of divorcing the wife - this means that the value of my holding is a heck of a lot less than what it was a couple of years ago

Trout

iTrader: (1)

A provision for a bad debt, in simple terms, is the scale of the debt multiplied by the chance of it happening. So £40bn by 5% say - £2bn in their balance sheet as a provision, which they would insure by purchasing a CDS. So the real cost of provision might only be £100m.

BUT - If Ireland does and Iceland then I think RBS would be in very serious trouble, and in turn the UK economy, again!

We already own most of it and the shareholding in RBS alone is already impacting the UKs credit rating, a further negative impact will cost us far more in debt servicing than the proposed £5bn we are going to chuck in the pool.

urban

iTrader: (1)

The cost of living is unbelieveable.
A lot of Irish people come and but their shopping in N.Ireland.

Even more funny is that Sainsbury's put on transport and bring up bus loads of people to do their shopping.
They feed them with tea/coffee and sandwiches and then bus them back to Dublin with their shopping

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

The Irish guy I used to work with said he would rather see Ireland in ruins and his family starving before he would see ireland under British rule again.
I think he may get his wish the way things are going, although I always thought it was a rather extreme view.

brendy76

iTrader: (6)

Lol, tell him to click his heels together one more time!

Trout btw, RBS trades on more than just the UK so there will be folks in the Republic who have money stuck in their institutions too.
I am in the north and have invested heavily in one of their £1000 overdrafts too