Interesting Times...

[Moglet]

Evening all,

It's not often that one sees adverts that are surprising. I've just seen one that's unprecedented in my experience: Fiat are advertising finance deals with an interest rate of MINUS 1%. Ok, so it equates to a 1% discount, but it's a real sign of the times...

[Jonny2morsos]

If you take into account their borrowing cost in % and multiply by the term of the loan then the real discount is more likely to be in the 10-20% range.

Still I have to say its a sign of the times when interest rates go in to minus figures.

john.

[Moglet]

Chalk it down, John. I think that if what is happening here was happening in the UK or France, there would be riots in the near future.

There is so much frenzied reporting about the blackest of news on the telly that many things aren't being covered at all. For example, Wyeth Pharmaceutical, who have a production plant in Co. Limerick, has just been bought out by Pfizer for $68 billion (so there is still money on the planet! ). This event didn't even get a passing mention from RTÉ!! I discovered this little nugget of information by reading the local rag: didn't even make front page of the City newspaper! The local plant makes SMA baby food, and they've been working round the clock for months to meet demand: it's no surprise that they were an attractive proposition.

It seems that the media over here just don't want to report anything that could be construed as positive. Irish members, do any of you watch both UK and Irish news bulletins? I'd be very interested to hear how the UK news bulletins compare with RTÉ's miseryfest.

What concerns me over here is that the politicians seem to be displaying an extreme form of the moral bankruptcy I considered New Labour to be guilty of. The Anglo Irish Bank scandal is appalling, and I think it has had a highly detrimental effect on how Ireland is perceived businesswise on an international scale. That won't do the country any favours in terms of the time it will take to recover from the pickle it has got itself into.

Based on the latest news reports, it looks to be a sure thing that we are heading for much higher direct taxation. I remember the eighties here, and it was soul-destroying to see just how much the Gum'mint removed from my pay packet each month. We are screwed for money at every turn over here: rent, utilities, credit/bank cards... you name it: it's pricey. What used to make it bearable in the eighties were lower rents and mortgages, and the real quality of life one had. It seems that insatiable greed has destroyed both of these compensations. Right now, as a retail businessperson, I'm not exactly brimming with economic optimism at the prospect of my customer base having the Gum'mint''s filthy, greedy mitts grabbing more and more of their potential disposable income. At source.

I made a point of watching Barack Obama's inauguration, and it was woderful to see the looks of inspiration he evoked in his audience. Globally, I think that 'We the Sheeple' truly need more leaders of his calibre, and I sincerely hope he gets the administrative backing needed to achieve all of his goals and aspirations. By comparison, The human spirit can be so strong that, even In the darkest of times, the slightest glimmer of hope can be what helps us to overcome the biggest of obstacles. Conversely, constant messages of despair only serve to overwhelm many of us to the point where we become crippled by fear. In terms of leadership, I feel that Ireland is currently is a rudderless nation. That thought scares me; and I don't believe for one minute that I'm alone in this feeling...

Sorry for the rant, but I'm so disappointed to find myself based in a country that used to be great place to live - in spite of the horrendous cost of living; and which, IMO, is now run by self-serving individuals whose main agenda is grabbing all they can in order to ensure that life is hunky dory for the Big Boys and the bureaucrats, and screw the rest of the population. I think Democracy died the day PAYE was introduced: if the jobsworths "in the system" had to fight for their living the way the rest of us do, then perhaps they would be deserving of the monicker "public servant".

It's safe to wake up now...

(Must have some Cornish blood in me somewhere... )

[Moglet]

Re the Wyeth takeover, it looks like Viagra sales are doing well...

[Moglet]

And another thought on the reporting of the Economic Apocalypse...

"100,000 lemmings can't be wrong."

Thank G-a-w-d I was at school the day they were giving out 'sense of humour'...

[WelshFramer]

Chalk it down, John. I think that if what is happening here was happening in the UK or France, there would be riots in the near future.

Maybe sooner than you might think:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009 ... e-protests

[Moglet]

That makes for grim reading, Mike. Certainly fuels my concerns about Ireland: here, they're forecasting a contraction of 4.7% for the year - worse than Lithuania!

[Moglet]

Well, we've had the "big announcement" from an Taoiseach here this arvo.

Contained the expected spending cuts and taxation rise stuff, plus comfortless messages about what they're going to do from a welfare perspective for people who lose their jobs, and the retraining initiatives that they are putting in place to reskill the workforce. However...there was no mention of any plans to stimulate job creation. Where do they think the new jobs are going to come from? The weird thing is that there's a full-page spread in the local rag about county enterprise boards running "start your own business" seminars and courses. Talk is all well and good, but I truly wonder where the gum'mint thinks people are going to get funding for new enterprises?

Also, there was not one whiff about support for SME's (that was left for the the leaders of the opposition parties to comment on).

Made for dismal listening... signs of leadership and messages of hope were conspicuous by their absence: and these are the things that, IMHO, the population need more than anything else right now. The country seems to be slipping into a state of despair.

It seems the country's in the hands of political ostriches. What next? Vote of 'No Confidence' amd General election? Riots? Whaddya reckon?

[kev@frames]

looks like europeans are all running true to form in a crisis:
the french are out in the streets breaking things, the brits are all going on strike, the germans are all working to rule/only obeying orders. Half the european leaders are trying to blame someone else by mentioning the word "global" (ie. its America's fault), the other half are saying we told you so, you should have listened to us, Gordon Brown seems to have forgotten that he clamed to have "saved the world" recently.

If the money was never there in the first place, then do we actually have any problem now that it still isn't there?

No-one has quite figured out where all the money everyone borrowed actually came from, and apparently they cant figure out who we owe it all to. Or if they have figured these things out, then they are keeping it under their hat.

I think the question is who will be the first to devalue their currency?