In what may be an important development the Financial Times reports that, in return for accepting much larger ‘haircuts’ (imposed losses on the value of the bonds they own) bondholders are demanding that there must be a growth strategy for Greece.
In a piece headlined ‘Bondholders Demand Greek Growth Plan’ the paper quotes the Managing Director and chief [...]

From Eoghan O’Neill, co-ordinator of Repudiate the Debt campaign.
On Monday the 24th of October 2011, the river Liffey burst its banks. What the people of Dublin witnessed was a month’s worth of rain fall, come down upon them within 24 hours. We had scenes of cars being submersed in water, households destroyed and businesses [...]

I’m sure like me, readers of this have been consumed with the great debate going on in Ireland at the moment. Apart from the rain and receding flood waters, it’s all anyone wants to talk about. Of course the outcome of this discussion will be seen in the very near future, but still its good [...]

Rakel Sigurgeirsdóttir, an Icelandic teacher from Reykjavík sent on this explanation for the open letter (below) that is addressed to the foreign experts invited to attend the Iceland´s Recovery-Lessons and Challenges conference, being held on October 27th in Reykjavík. The foreign experts include Paul Krugman, Martin Wolf, Simon Johnson, and Willem Buiter. The full letter [...]

With very little media attention or analysis, the first quality report on the scale of Irish debt was published in September. It was compiled by Dr Sheila Killian, Dr John Garvey and Frances Shaw of the University of Limerick and sponsored by the Debt and Development Coalition, Afri, and Unite.
Here we briefly review the report [...]

From Diarmuid O’Flynn of Ballyhea bondholder bailout protest and Bondwatch Ireland.
Our 32nd weekly protest march in Ballyhea coming up this Sunday (11.30am, meeting at the church) and we’re being asked - ‘How long more are ye going to keep up these protests?’ I don’t speak for anyone else among our regular group, nor for anyone in the [...]

This was originally co-written for Progressive-Economy.ie with Michael Burke and Tom McDonnell.
The Anglo-Irish and Irish Nationwide debt must become a major political issue. The Anglo/INBS debt-burden is an unjust and unwarranted charge which the Irish people ought have no responsibility for, a charge which will continue to drain the productive economy for years to come. [...]

The current falls in the prices of bank shares are widely covered in the financial media. However the overall pattern and scale of the decline in market evaluation of banking shares is still not sufficiently frequently drawn together. The aim of this note is therefore to show this pattern in clear terms. It reveals market [...]

Gene Kerrigan is a little dubious about claims of Ireland’s ‘unexpected economic recovery‘. The article by David Vines and Max Watson of Oxford University, which first appeared in the Financial Times, went viral Irish-style, reprinted in the Irish Times and Independent and featuring on numerous current affairs programmes. And why not? They claim the markets have [...]

This piece was written by Alison Spillane and Adam Larragy and appeared originally on Politico.ie today.
Today, EBS will pay €42,305,476 to senior unsecured bondholders - most probably large financial institutions.  These bonds, one €40,000,000 and one €2,305,476, are not covered by any of the guarantee schemes introduced by the Irish government. It is [...]