Cowen damns us all with rescue of his friends at Anglo Irish

national | worker & community struggles and protests | other press Tuesday January 20, 2009 07:14 by Miriam

Cowen and Lenihan destroying jobs and businesses to save their friends

Morgan Kelly, Professor of Economics at UCD has delivered a scathing criticism of Cowen's decision to rescue Anglo Irish Bank - and describes how Cowen and Lenihan went against advice of the Central Bank and their own experts in the Department of Finance - fully aware of what it would do to the citizens of the state.

The reality is that Anglo has no importance in the Irish financial system. It existed purely as a vehicle for a few politically connected individuals to place reckless bets on the commercial property market. These property speculators may be of systemic importance to the finances of Fianna Fáil, but their significance ends there.

Nothing could be a clearer indication of where this government's priorities lie - Kelly says the scale of the undertaking given to Anglo Irish amounts to 20K euro per household per year.

"The proposed Anglo nationalisation marks a decisive watershed in Irish democracy. With it, an Irish government has coolly looked its citizens in the eye and said: “Sorry, but your priorities are not ours.” "

Article here:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0120/1....html

As Kelly says:

"It is to be hoped that the collapse of other bank shares will serve as a warning to deter the Government from this catastrophic course. I would therefore urge any TDs and Senators who still believe that the Irish State exists to act in the interests of its people to vote against the nationalisation of Anglo Irish and do everything to protect the other banks."

People need to get in touch with their FF TDs if they have them and make them understand that they must not vote for this measure.