If you want to watch Freefall on the RTÉ Player, here’s part one and two.)
“You shouldn’t be worrying yourself Taoiseach,” is the point where Bertie Aherne pleads ignorance and effectively washes his hands of responsiblity. The rotting core of the Irish financial industry was truly revealed when Lehman Brothers collapsed but one wonders how long would the Irish finiancial institutions stayed afloat if Lehman Brother had survived.
When new kid on the block Bank of Scotland came to Ireland for business, it gave cut-throat mortgages, under-cutting its Irish competitors. To compete, the Irish banking institutions brought their interest rates down and loaned more capital. This is where 40 year mortgages and dangerous 100% finance and 120% mortgages was offered to furnish homes along with purchasing the property. People who could who never usually be afford to purchase property became property moguls through pressure and easy money from banks. It seems to be an inherent part of the Irish psyche to purchase property, rather than renting as “it’s money down the drain”; a throwback time to John B. Keane’s The Field.
The banks propagated this notion of property sustaining the Irish economy and through Ireland’s ties to the European Union, easy money was available. The governement allowed themselves to be dictated to by property moguls by assisting in them in developments. The property industry became a crutch to the economy, responsible for it’s boom but also it’s destruction. “I don’t want to see any intereference in the propery markets, I don’t want to hear anything about them,” according to Brian Cowen as Minister for Finance.
As far back as 2003, the impending Irish property bubble was foreseen, flashing alarm bells across the board. 42% of Irish homes were overvalued. There was such a descrepancy between the average salary and house prices which could be almost 11 times more.
Irish money was borrowed and recklessless on the part of the banks and property developers. The government twisted themselves to cultivate the most profitable aspect of the growing economy, instead of trying to spread the wealth to other sectors and industries.
Banks rolled over loans, which became bank losses. The developers avoided paying a great deal of tax buying having their loans rolled over to buy something else. Ballsbridge became the most expensive land in the world with prices increasing over 150% by developers seeking to buy up the area.
The loans now transferred into NAMA are responsible for the loans of 20 developers. Only 20 people. To think that such a small number combined with bad decisions by bankers and an unregulated system led to Ireland’s eventual decline and near-collapse. People who didn’t know their ass from their elbow with the foresight of basic physics, “What goes up, must come back down.” Whether it’s a gentle decline or jump from the edge, prudence was not exercised.
(If you missed Freefall, you can catch it on RTÉ Player.)
Freefall aired on RTE One at 9.35 this evening and led to the build up of the bank crisis in Ireland. The crisis was an impending and dooming collapse almost as far back as 25 years ago when financial deregulation was introduced. When economic activity is deregulated, greed perpetuated the cycle of lending to an unsustainable level. Unregulated banking methods led to implosion of Lehman Brothers, America’s fourth largest bank. A mere 14 days later the Irish government introduced a bank guarantee for Irish financial institutions.
Anglo Irish Bank is the cheap pin-up girl of the Irish financial industry. According to Freefall, Anglo had to lend 60 million euro a day when it realised sources of finance were quickly drying up. It grew faster than the Irish economy, up to 30% growth year on year in the mid-noughties but 80% of it’s loans was focused on property.
Prior to the bank guarantee, it’s revealed that Anglo Irish Bank was insolvent and Séan Fitzpatrick and his CEO approached Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank pleading them to take Anglo off of his hands. Anglo would have collapsed the following day if the bank guarantee wasn’t promised by the Irish State.
Many commentators from around the world were wondering how the Irish, lucky as they may be, would pull themselves of a crisis. When the bank guarantee was announced, these commentators around the world were concerned as citizens would invest guaranteed Irish banks overseas. Interesting to see the reaction from Alistar Darling, British Fiance Minister, about the guarantee and how it would influence British citizens to invest in Irish banks.
There was a distinct sense of ‘passing the buck’ mentality. It’s true Lehman Brothers collapsing speeded up Ireland’s impending crisis but of course politicians couldn’t have foresight or at least partly admit responsibility. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern popped up like a jack-in-the-box as a teaser for next week’s episode.
The real question is for banks and politicians is were they liars or were they fools?
Memorable moments from Freefall was Brian Lenihane chuckling at reminiscing a phone call from ECB when he was at the races. Also the night before the bank guarantee, Brian Cowen allegedly slammed the table, ‘We’re not fucking nationalising Anglo.’
On the search for #freefall, below is one of the best tweets from @shanehegarty referring to zombie banks.
Can’t wait to see Vincent Browne’s rection to the Freefall documentary!
Looky looky! They’ve passed the Regionals, next is the Nationals in New York. Gleek fans of the musically talented kiddies will be very happy to check out the teaser trailer for season two, due to start airing in America on September 21st.
Lenore The Cute Little Dead Girl is a self-explanatory title.
A ten year old girl called Lenore has been dead for some time. Lenore shows us that innocence is a dangerous thing, especially when you’re undead and have no moral compass. The world is yours for the taking. Accompanied by Ragamuffin who’s a stuffed doll with a vampire soul, an ardent lover with button eyes called Mr. Gosh and Taxidermy is, well, difficult to explain…
Anyway, this rag-tag entourage in the animated series keep Lenore company on various adventures or perhaps I should say misadventures. The animated series of Lenore and company is based on selected stories from the comics created by Roman Dirge. I don’t want to say too much more, hope you enjoy!
There’s 26 short episodes of the Lenore animated series but if you have a sensivity to gore, horror and general deviousness then do not watch Lenore. She’ll warp your mind. But if you do choose to take up this challenge, then you will find two episodes of the animated series below.
I’m working my way through the comic books of The Walking Dead. So I’m keeping my thoughts on this quiet until I’ve finished the series. So far it looks like the TV series is loyal to the comics.
While the Supernatural TV series is reaching the impending sixth season, a 22 episode anime of Supernatural is due to be released early next year. Produced by Mad House, also responsible for Paprika, and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. It’ll be released on DVD in Japan on January 12th 2011, with the other boxes being released on February 2nd and April 6th. Both Ackles and Paldecki have confirmed that they’re doing dubbing on the anime.
I wonder will it be a prequel to their televised adventures or will it do a Buffy or Angel by perpetuating the brand long after the TV series had concluded. We’ll just have to wait and see.
A look at these newspapers these days and it’s difficult not to think we’re smack bam back in the Eighties – economic hardship, hundreds of thousands on the dole, Spandau Ballet reunite. Oh and the very Irish phenomenon of moving statues. Where else would you have it?
Tomorrow night, RTÉ One airs the documentary Apparitions that follows the self-proclaimed visionary, Joe Coleman on his pilgrimages to Knock from late last year up to this May gone. Thousands of believers turning up and a Liveline grilling later, we’re promised a portrait of the man and interviews with believers and critics alike.
It will interesting to see how sensitive RTE is to the believer camp, in post-Catholic Ireland that suffered abuse scandal after scandal it’s easy to paint Marion visionary believers as nutjobs believing in a voice and light in the sky. A strong docu will dig a little deeper.
Apparitions airs Monday, 19th July at 9:35pm on RTÉ One.
Last weekend, Haven premiered on SyFy USA so we thought we’d a quick look it and see if it’s weight in choc ices.
Beware…. spoilers ahead!
Haven comes with a heavy mantle, so hopes were high. The show is based on a 2005 novel by Stephen King, The Colorado Kid. In the book, the body of a man with a wedge of meat in his mouth is found in small-town Maine, and the staff of a local paper, The Insider, investigate the crime. Five years later and Haven hits the telly, our small-town heroes have been demoted to a pair of tandem-driving brothers and their plucky assistant has be recast as an equally plucky FBI agent, Audrey Parker. Crush puppet alert.
The murder plot that Parker’s sent to investigate is flimsy. Not to spoil the premiere too much, but even an occasional Jessica Fletcher watcher could solve the crime.
What’s most off-putting about the show so far is that our protagonist, Parker, seems to accept the strangeness of Haven in her stride. She barely bats a lovely-lined eyelid. Weird weather phenomenon gets a notary nod, but she’s not calling NOAA. Demonstrated psychokinesis and she doesn’t even notice. Potential love interest feels no physical pain, ah it’s a nerve thing. We’re shown a vampire romance novel in the prologue that seems at pains to square her acceptance of the weird and wonderful. Hello average girl in her twen-thirties.
The show isn’t without potential, though. Our tandem-driving heroes of yore will no doubt add off-beat humour, but let’s hope their more than mere Lone Gunmen. And let’s crosses our toes for a little less Point Pleasantmeets Eureka with a dash of X-Files.
Has potential, but I hope it doesn’t fall into Freak of the Week trap!
Last night’s World Cup final was dreary affair. Being a total fair-weather football fan, I wanted the Dutch to win. More to thwart the DNA of the successful Barcelona formula, than anything else. Bitter, bitte.
Ignoring the football (ahem), it’s hard to discount the joy that Ápres Match have delivered over the tournament. It’s big Bill O’s last World Cup punditing, so they had to take out the big guns.
