Cowen speaks to Fox

[odlum]

Remember it is all Lehmans fault.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki90qfcAJGU"]YouTube- Exclusive Interview with Irish Prime Minister[/ame]

[petervalhala]

Remember it is all Lehmans fault.

Considering their collapse caused the interbank lending market to contract overnight, then yes it contributed substantially to the world wide recession

[Cassandra Syndrome]

Considering their collapse caused the interbank lending market to contract overnight, then yes it contributed substantially to the world wide recession

And the exposure of the assets on the balance sheets of the Irish banks to property related investments rendered them insolvent as their mark to market values were way overpriced. Why were these assets overpriced to begin with?

What level of CDOs were the Irish Banks involved with?

[Nugget]

He looks alot better than when he was in finance. His advisors must have put him on a diet.

[yehbut_nobut]

He looks alot better than when he was in finance. His advisors must have put him on a diet.

what?

This is how he looked in when he was minister for finance, before the 2007 election:



The bloke has gone seriously downhill in last few years- and someone should tell him to (for God's sake!) sit up straight whenever he's on the television!

[gatsbygirl20]

He looks alot better than when he was in finance. His advisors must have put him on a diet.

I thought it was a good interview from his point of view, bearing in mind the target audience......Sure, all the favourite soundbytes were there.....Lehman's did it....small open economy....educated workforce....etc. etc. The interviewer fed him easy lines and he made use of them........

[cyberianpan]

And the exposure of the assets on the balance sheets of the Irish banks to property related investments rendered them insolvent as their mark to market values were way overpriced. Why were these assets overpriced to begin with?

What level of CDOs were the Irish Banks involved with?

Irish banks didn't buy substantial quantities of them

They issued some under the ACS act- however some of the issues were only for funding & didn't take risk off balance sheet(so not true CDO's in the US sense)

Exotic or indeed any investment instruments had very little to do with the downfall of Irish banks... reckless primary lending, fuelled by inter bank deposits, & a property bubble : plain and simple.

Lehman's certainly hurt us here, insomuch as it hurt the world and thus hurt our exports/FDI... though liquidity crisis wasn't our real problem, more a fundamental solvency crisis... albeit one that the liquidity crisis accelerated the exposure of.

cYp

[hammer]

Why did he have his lips injected with fat

[Podolski1.5]

Well I hope the fox was able to make more sense out of his rambling than human listeners.

[DCon]

reckless primary lending, fuelled by inter bank deposits, & a property bubble : plain and simple.


cYp

kindly guaranteed by the Irish state, courtesy of Lenny & Cowen.