“Is the Troika Trying to Break Social Cohesion in Greece ?” June 8, 2015

“Is the Troika trying to break the social cohesion in Greece in order to bring back their wooden trojan horse (traitor) Samaras to power ? I noticed that most recent poll showed a drop fo 5.3 % for Syriza party in contrast to Turkish elections today a bit of a shock but a warning to any mainstream political parties allied to the Troika.” (D.S.)

The Institutions (Troika is a bad word these days!) are doing two things:
– they are destroying the social cohesion of Greece and its people, and the weapon is poverty
– they are destroying what is left of the Greek economy as a blueprint for the economic wasteland they need around the thriving centre of the EU.  This is in order to ensure two things for that centre –  a pool of easily accessible cheap labour which is to be kept at the highest possible level of economic and social poverty and deprivation, and a remaining viable market to which they can sell their products. For the second objective, the weapon is debt. Together, this creates the perfect vicious circle, a peripheral economy fuelled by debt, which is then repaid to the centre. Of course, eventually, that is self defeating for the centre, but hey, that’s a problem for tomorrow’s generations, so who cares? They deserve their world war as well…

Greece and its government are refusing to play ball, unlike Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and the Baltic States. Simply look at the Institutions demands and you’ll see what the objective is. The vast bulk of those demands are aimed at destroying the social aspect of our society. Divide and rule. The big fear of course is that if Greece gets away with this, then those other peripheral countries might just grow a pair as well and demand similar things. That would mean the necessity for the EU to become a transfer (sharing) economy instead of the vulture economy it now is. And of course, expecting that to happen would be like expecting Turkeys to vote for Christmas.
Gombeen men like Samaras and Papademos are of course being lined up at the side lines. Watch out for these guys: Γκίκας Χαρδούβελης (Hardouvelis), former Minister for Finance under Samaras. He is the new puppet on the rise, backed by all the wrong people (from a Greek point of view). Samaras has served his time and will get his reward soon.
The other one is Ανδρέας Λοβέρδος (Andreas Loverdos, PASOK), ex minister for health. He is the b*****d who plastered posters all over Athens with the names and photos of HIV positive women to “protect” the Greek men… guess what he would be willing to do if giving free reign…

As for the poll showing that decline, of course keep an eye on it, but take it with a serious chunk of salt. It was conducted on behalf of STAR TV, the official mouthpiece for Nea Demokratia… The poll results that have so far proven to be most reliable are those carried out and published by the University of Macedonia. They give SYRIZA a 45% slice of the vote, with a comfortable 22% lead on ND, and rising…

Ephilant 8.6.2015

NAMA, the NTMA and The Public Interest June 2, 2015

Having purchased the Sunday Independent (17th May),  largely for a 10 Euro off Lidl voucher, I came across an article on N.A.M.A that was both alarming and eye opening.

I have long held the view that this outfit would end up as a national scandal at some stage. On reading this article I discovered that we have taken stupidity and incompetence to a whole new level. But first a brief recap:

The NTMA is the body which handles the state debt. It incorporates NAMA (the National Asset Management Agency), the body established by the Government to handle toxic bank loans.

Recent figures reveal staff at the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which incorporates NAMA, to be among the best-paid in the public sector. The figures show:
– 202 NTMA staff earn up to €100,000.
– 65 earn between €100,001 and €150,000.
– 22 earn between €150,001 and €200,000.
– 16 earn more than €200,000.
The figures mean that, of the total of 305 staff in the NTMA, a third earn more than €100,000 a year.
They also mean that several NTMA staff are paid more than ministers, who receive €181,000 a year.
For example, NTMA chief executive John Corrigan recently revealed he is paid €490,000 a year after a FOI request concerning the salary of his predecessor. Mr Corrigan could also earn annual bonuses of up to €392,000 in line with his contract.
It is believed the chief executive of NAMA Brendan McDonagh also earns about €500,000.
So, what are all these splendid people doing?
The article in the Sunday Independent, page 12 of the news section, gives some examples of deals they have been making on our behalf.

Project Holly, the loan portfolio of developer Sean Reilly, with a par value of €373 million was sold by NAMA in 2014 to US equity company Lone Star for €220 million. In 2015 Lone Star sold in on to US fund Starwood Properties for €350 million. Net loss to the Irish taxpayer of €130 million! Or just under €3 million a week profit for the vulture funds.

One Warrington Place, Dublin2. Sold to to US fund Northwood Investors for €27 million. Last year that property was sold on for €42 million. Cost us € 15 million that one did.

The Forum Building, IFSC, Dublin 1. sold for €28 million and sold on for €37.8 million.

1-6 John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2. Sold for €7.5 million sold on for €17.75 million

Dock Mills, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2. Developer Chris Jones paid NAMA €1.3 million. Spent €1.4 million converting to offices and then sold on for €13 million.

Booterstown Marsh Site sold for €400.000 sold on less than two years later for a million.

Makes you weep. In just the six examples in this article a staggering difference of some €170 million between NAMA sales and the actual market values they reached, in many cases in less than two years.

I take the view that, where it is possible to get the values of properties wrong, but it takes a level of incompetence that is staggering to get them wrong this often and by this much.

Remember how secretive this outfit is. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Nobody is watching. Welcome to the brave new World of petty, nasty new taxes, cuts to services and topically, a heath services that is bad for you health.

All this, while are we paying these people a fortune to cost us a fortune with government convinced of how well it is doing!

Peter Farrahy  May 2015