Irish Bailout Announced

This is getting old:

"Taoiseach Brian Cowen has confirmed that a major financial assistance plan for Ireland has been agreed with the EU.

He said the terms of the funding being sought would be the subject of negotiations and would be used to put the Irish banking system back on its own two feet and to address the current deficit."

My Take:

Good luck Ireland.  Selling your soul to the devil usually doesn't work out well.  The number appears to be around $100 billion for the bailout.  The terms are still being negotiated.

The stock futures up sharply on the news.  The markets have been "saved" once again so the street loves it.  The reality is all this does is kick the can down the road. 

Just look at Greece.  It's been one year since their bailout and the country remains a mess.  Their citizens are tired of austerity.  The sheeple are getting increasingly angry because they are being forced to live in misery in order to pay for the bankers mistakes.

There will come a tipping point where the people aren't going to take it anymore.  They will start asking themselves:  Why in the hell should I live like this when this whole thing wasn't my fault?

The next question they will start asking themselves is why are the people who made the mistakes that created this crisis not being punished? 

Don't be fooled folks.  Social chaos is right around the corner because papering over losses DOES NOT WORK.  It only delays the pain.

As the world's economies continue to deteriorate there will come a tipping point where people won't take it anymore.  Mark my words.

We saw a taste of it in the Irish parliamentary today.  Let's hope we see more politicians tell the system to "*uck off":



Stocks are pumping the news tonight because the bankers basically won again when Ireland caved and took the money.

The European banks had $650 BILLION of exposure to Ireland.  If the Irish hadn't taken the bailout the Euro banking system was likely toast.

I am amazed that these bailouts continue to get cheered by the stock market.  The financial system once again almost imploded. 
How in the hell is this good news?

The Bottom Line

I am not confident this pump will last into tomorrow's trading session. 

I say this because was another big story this weekend and if this thing gets legs it's going to be huge:

"Federal authorities, capping a three-year investigation, are preparing insider-trading charges that could ensnare consultants, investment bankers, hedge-fund and mutual-fund traders, and analysts across the nation, according to people familiar with the matter.

In another aspect of the probes, prosecutors and regulators are examining whether Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bankers leaked information about transactions, including health-care mergers, in ways that benefited certain investors, the people say. Goldman declined to comment.


The investigations have been conducted by federal prosecutors in New York, the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Representatives of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, the FBI and the SEC declined to comment.

A First New York spokesman said: "We are one of more than three dozen firms that have been asked by regulators to provide general information in a widespread inquiry; we have cooperated fully." He added: "We stand behind our traders and our systems and policies in place that ensure full regulatory compliance."


Key parts of the probes are at a late stage.


The SEC has been investigating potential leaks on takeover deals going back to at least 2007 amid an explosion of deals leading up to the financial crisis. The SEC sent subpoenas last autumn to more than 30 hedge funds and other investors."

Continued Bottom Line:

Stay tuned on this one folks.  These are serious investigations and the implications here are mind boggling.

Wall St owns DC right now so I won't too excited about this until I hear more details.

Until tomorrow!