The Irish Banks Report Is Released

OS is no economist, but even his feeble brain knows that this is ugly.

From today's Irish Times:

Ireland’s beleaguered banking sector will require a further €24 billion recapitalisation, pushing the total cost of bailing out the banks to €70 billion.

The figure was determined by the Central Bank’s long-awaited stress tests on Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks, Irish Life and Permanent and the EBS.

This will be the fifth attempt to draw a line under the banking crisis, which have so far cost the State €46 billion, and will bring the entire banking sector under Government control.

It also means the State will require substantially more of the €35 billion earmarked for the banks under the EU/IMF bailout deal than previously envisaged.

The recapitalisation will coincide with a major restructuring of the sector, the details of which are being outlined by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan in the Dail.

For a simple soul like OS, the figures, breathtaking as they are, matter less than the opening line of the third paragraph above--'This will be the fifth attempt...'

Remember, ya'll? The Irish electorate said 'NO' to entry into the Eurozone in '08, so the Utopians kept at it, essentially saying 'We're just keep holding referendums until you dumb Irish get it right, and surrender your hard-won independence to Brussels'. So in 2009...they did. After all that struggle and blood spilled, they voted for life in the EU.

Wonder if they want their sovereignty back yet? And their currency? And their culture? And their freedom?

More than the bank balance sheets eroded here, ya'll. There has been an erosion of the essential trust that holds things together...which is why the balance sheets melted down.

It can happen here, in the US. It doesn't have to, but it can. We are not out of the woods, by a long shot.