Why the delay in producing THE PLAN for the economy?

[Question R24U]

Last week was lost due to anglo irish. This week will be a right off too. The ard fheis is next week-end does anyone have any confidence that the framework will articulated into a vision, so that it can be set down and referred to a sub-committee prior to being put to reopened lines of communication with the social partners and then, on an agreed basis, for implementation.

[He3]

David McWilliams sets out his plan in today's SBP. It is not up on the web yet, and I don't have time to even summarise it properly here, but if anyone has read it and has views on it, I'd be glad to hear them.

He says we should set up a 'financial skip' and throw all the banks' toxic debts
into it. The skip buys the associated assets from the bank for say 20 percent original price. He thinks that could be 40 billion all told. Get that from the ECB at 4 percent. That cleans up the old banks and lets them resume raising money in the money markets, and lending again to good businesses.

Finally clear out all old bank management to facilitate this 'renaissance'

[H.R. Haldeman]

My knowledge of economics blows, but to a layman the whole good bank/bad bank idea seems like a decent way forward. Not because it in any way gets rid of the toxic stuff, which will still need to be dealt with. But rather because it frees up the good banks to get back to normal, restore confidence etc.

[He3]

David McWilliams sets out his plan in today's SBP. It is not up on the web yet, and I don't have time to even summarise it properly here, but if anyone has read it and has views on it, I'd be glad to hear them.

He says we should set up a 'financial skip' and throw all the banks' toxic debts
into it. The skip buys the associated assets from the bank for say 20 percent original price. He thinks that could be 40 billion all told. Get that from the ECB at 4 percent. That cleans up the old banks and lets them resume raising money in the money markets, and lending again to good businesses.

Finally clear out all old bank management to facilitate this 'renaissance'

My knowledge of economics blows, but to a layman the whole good bank/bad bank idea seems like a decent way forward. Not because it in any way gets rid of the toxic stuff, which will still need to be dealt with. But rather because it frees up the good banks to get back to normal, restore confidence etc.

The David McWilliams piece is up now

Sunday Business Post | Irish Business News

Let’s solve the problem and stop blaming others (there’s plenty of time for that); we must not let the country sink.
We -that is, my generation - don’t want to be the first Irish people who have had to emigrate twice in their working lifetime. Those who were born in the mid1960s tomid-1970s face the very real prospect of having emigrated in the 1980s and early 1990s, coming back in the late 1990s and early ‘noughties’, and now having to go away again. Some might argue there is nowhere to go in a global depression, yet we all know someone who will take his or her chances in a bigger pond than be stuck here, ruled by people who don’t seem to know what they are doing. It is clear that the government is completely out of control. It is also clear that this country is far too important to be left to those with their fake patriotism, which simply masks endemic cronyism. It is not about them, their careers or their political parties any more. It is about us, our lives, our parents’ retirement and our children’s prospects. If these people’s grasp of basic economics is so pathetically challenged that they cannot govern, then they should just go. Leave us alone, please. In the name of Ireland, go.

That's his intro. The plan is spelled out in what looks like plain terms on the link.

He sets the scene by pointing out that AIB has burned through a quarter of the 3.5 billion we gave it in just two weeks.

In the madness of the past few days, AIB’s profit warning, which was announced last Thursday, went unnoticed. It was the most significant news of the week.

Granted, the ‘golden circle’ got more airtime, but the AIB warning told us something about today, not yesterday. AIB -a bank with a chairman and chief executive who are scandalously still drawing salaries -admitted that its loss charge (ie its bad debts) for 2008 was €1.8 billion -o r 1.37 per cent of its loan book. This is up from a figure of €950 million estimated three months ago. The ‘mistake’ -the difference between the original bluff figure and last Thursday’s new estimate - was €850 million. Just to remind you, this represents 24 per cent of the bank’s recapitalisation of €3.5 billion announced two weeks ago. That means 24 per cent of the money -our money - poured in by the government has gone already! (How many A&E wards could we staff, or how many special needs teachers could we fund for our national school pupils, with this money?)

At this rate, AIB will have burned through all our cash in a matter of months just by sticking to the current rate of adjustments to its estimated bad debts.

[BodyofEvidence]

To the OP : there is a delay because there is no plan. Only panic...

[Question R24U]

To the OP : there is a delay because there is no plan. Only panic...

...politicians like panic, they use it as a substitute for action. (yes minister).

But seriously, cowen has had ten months. Kenny has had years to formulate an alternative the man on the street should be able to recite. Why are they both so coy (or their pr machines so poor in not surfa the word).

Is cowen on or taking the p1ss? -a fg td should ask him.
Kenny should be at him daily over the lack of a plan (to date pat kenny has done more).
Kenny should be able to say to him and the public sector unions - this is my plan. The government should move.
If cowen will not tell the nation how bad things are, kenny should tell us.

Cowen, coughlan and lenny may not be up to the job. But they will not walk into an election they will lose, someone, anyone has to get them to do their jobs now. I believe kenny needs to pile the pressure on fianna fail, while he leaves the greens to gilmore...

[Question R24U]

Morning now, Brendan keenan refers to our snail pace. Compares us to South American economies, leading to unsustainable debt. That will need 3 to 4 billion more cuts every year. We need a 3 year plan. And the days of consulting with the social partners is gone.
George Lee, launched into an attack on the social partners, who if says was there, they decided how the goodies were divided. They oversaw one in four men being employed in construction. He says we need tax increases now.
All grim stuff. But it will get worse.

[BodyofEvidence]

Morning now, Brendan keenan refers to our snail pace. Compares us to South American economies, leading to unsustainable debt. That will need 3 to 4 billion more cuts every year. We need a 3 year plan. And the days of consulting with the social partners is gone.
George Lee, launched into an attack on the social partners, who if says was there, they decided how the goodies were divided. They oversaw one in four men being employed in construction. He says we need tax increases now.
All grim stuff. But it will get worse.

Yes, it will. And the DoF are busy threatening the papers with defamation. TBH I think we are now into political paralisis. I loathe FF but if they went to the country, with a broad plan of where how and on whom the pain will be and got elected that would be better than this death spiral we are in