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International Herald Tribune on the New Ireland February 28, 2009

Posted by Garibaldy in Capitalism, Economics, Ireland.
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To add to the tensions, some East European nations are eager to speed up entry into the euro zone, which has provided a shield for weaker economies like Greece and Ireland.

Enough said

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1. CL - February 28, 2009

Certainly being in the eurozone helps Ireland. Investors are still finding Ireland attractive. The International Herald Tribune reports that an investment consortium named Mallabraca may buy the nationalised Anglo Irish bank.
“Mallabraca, which was incorporated in Ireland in mid-November, still has no telephone listing in the country and could not be reached for comment.
Mallabraca is an umbrella for several private equity houses based in the United States and Middle East. It is being directed by Irish investment specialists, most of whom previously worked with one of Ireland’s most high-profile billionaires, Dermot Desmond.”-much more to be said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/27/business/EU-Ireland-Anglo-Irish-Bank.php

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2. Garibaldy - February 28, 2009

I don’t doubt it helps, and as you say there are always people prepared to speculate on the long game. I was just fascinated how supposedly the model economy for the developing world is now seen as as weak as Greece. There is a certain amount of northern schadenfreude in all this it has to be said.

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3. CL - February 28, 2009

The reported take-over of Anglo by Mallabraca is not economic speculation, but crony capitalism at its worst.
The Carlyle Group, one of the private equity groups in Mallabraca, with major players such as the Bush family, James Baker, Frank Carlucci, is the very essence of crony capitalism. The object of such interlinkage between capital and politics is the reduction of risk and the assurance profit.
Given the price of Anglo shares Carlyle or Mallabraca or anyone could have acquired the company easily. There is a reason why it was nationalised:it was broke, insolvent
The on-going collapse of the property market, and Irish government secrecy, means that the depth of the hole that Anglo is in is unknown. The government has already guaranteed all deposits and liabilities. Further inducements most likely have been offered to Mallabraca. Socializing losses and private appropriation of profit is a typical crony capitalism solution to the banking debacle. The demand must be that full details of this shady transaction be made available. What caused the problem cannot be a solution.

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4. CL - February 28, 2009

The recently resigned Chairman of the Irish Nationwide Building Society, Michael Walsh, is an executive director of International Investment and Underwriting (IIU), a private equity firm owned by his close associate Dermot Desmond.

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5. ejh - March 1, 2009

I’ve probably done this story here before but when I stated working as a library assistant at Oxford Brookes Universrsity in (I think) 1998, I used to receipt books for a number of faculties including the Business School and I remember a flurry, to put it mildly, of books all recommending that Western economies adopt the example of South Korea if they wanted to compete. This was rather odd as there had just been a major economic crash in that country, but of course the books had all been commissioned before the fact.

Shortly, though, they stopped arriving – but a few months later there was a new flurry of books for the Business School, all recommending that Western economies should not adopt the example of South Korea if they wanted to compete…

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6. EWI - March 1, 2009

Certainly being in the eurozone helps Ireland. Investors are still finding Ireland attractive. The International Herald Tribune reports that an investment consortium named Mallabraca may buy the nationalised Anglo Irish bank.

I recall reports of an out-of-work Taoiseach (one Bertie Ahern) being an advisor to certain foreign interests looking to snap up bargains: could hardly be the same crowd, could it?

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7. WorldbyStorm - March 1, 2009

You never know. One of the reasons some Republicans are so strong behind the US nationalisation moves is the prospect of buying up the banks at a song at some point in the future… nice work for those as can get it…

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8. CL - March 1, 2009

‘it has emerged that Nick Corcoran, who helped to assemble the group, asked former taoiseach Bertie Ahern for advice about investing in the sector. Mr Corcoran, a director of investment firm Cardinal Asset Management and Mallabraca, is from Mr Ahern’s Dublin constituency.’-
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2008/1126/1227655198991.html
Associates of Dermot Desmond are behind Mallabraca. Desmond, a ‘benefactor’ of Charlie Haughey, was the moving force behind the ‘lightly regulated’, I.F.S.C. No doubt the crony capitalists of the Carlyle Group find congenial the corporate culture of Mallabraca. Wheels within wheels and circles within circles.
(The Church of Ireland republican, Sam Maguire, who recruited Michael Collins into the I.R.B., was born in the townland of Mallabraca in West Cork)

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