GO on. Genuflect. The boys and girls from the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) are coming to tea. Go on. Bow and scrape. These guys are rocket scientists. They are the immortals of the Irish financial world. They have doctorates in derivatives, medals in management and degrees in debt. They salivate at the difference between …
Category Archive
for: ‘Corporate Ireland’
New Era, Same Old Gang
LET me tell you the story of lucky old Eileen. Lucky Eileen landed a job last week. Not any old job, but a six-figure job. It will carry all the bells and whistles of the financial sector. Her package would not humiliate a banker. Eileen was not interviewed for the appointment. She was, somehow, assumed …
Quango Queen Eyes The Park
IS there a single presidential candidate with a clue about business? Where is the leader-in-waiting who might fly across the globe, blazing a trail for Irish enterprise? I had high hopes for Senator Feargal Quinn, but he hung his hat on the fortunes of Dragon’s Den star Sean Gallagher. Indeed Sean might have fit the …
Jobless banker? Apply to CRO
So you thought the bankers were reeling? Far from it. Last week they scored a bullseye. We bank-bashers woke up on Monday morning with a flea in our ears. We had led with our chins, excoriating the bankers for refusing to lend to small businesses. Suddenly, an independent report left us on the canvass. The …
Enda’s Missed Opportunity
FOR a brief moment last week, fool that I was, I thought we were crossing a rubicon of reform. Insiders need not worry. Bonuses are not on the way out; banks are not being reformed; semi-states are not bowing the knee; seats on boards are safe. Instead of reform, fresh phrases are being invented to …
Lethal Threat of Continuity BOI
COME weep with me on Wednesday. Let us enjoy an old-fashioned wake. We will wake Bank of Ireland. At 11am in the O’Reilly Hall at UCD we will begin the obsequies. Join me there at the AGM. All true sufferers at the hands of the bank should assemble to wonder and weep. To weep at …
Pensioners Suckered by 1% Levy
DO you pay into a pension fund? No? Well, you are the cute hoor. You do? Well, name your pension fund manager. You cannot? Not surprising, because that is exactly where the titans of the pensions industry want to keep you. The pensions industry is divided into two parts: those who take and those who …
Play the Bankruptcy Card
Sometimes it pays to be bankrupt. Ireland is no longer the darling of Europe’s leaders. Indeed our new masters want to test the mettle of our Taoiseach and his Cabinet. Portly European Commissioner Jose Emmanuel Barroso took time off to greet Enda Kenny. French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave him a grilling. ECB boss Jean- Claude …
No Bonus Bonfire at AIB or ESB
DID you miss the wonderful news in the Budget? You did? Well, the pay of semi-state bosses is to be capped at €250,000. Welcome to the brave new world of sharing the burden. In this time of poverty, even Ireland’s oligarchs must limit themselves to five grand a week. And if you believe that, you …