- We live in a dysfunctional Boom-Bust cycle economy, mainly created by the Banking System overseen by the CBoI and ECB. We essentially have a banking duopoly of two mega international corporations BoI & AIB,
- AIB Total assets: EUR 110.4 billion – Net income: EUR -769 million (2020)
- BoI Total assets: EUR 133.8 billion – Net income: EUR -721 million (2020) https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/companies/banks-in-ireland/
2. The bank’s destroyed the economy in 2008, with no consequences for their actions. Of the two major banks, the shares of one were consolidated at 250:1 in 2016, so the actual value is less than €0.01 per share. The second banks’ shares were consolidated at 30:1 in 2017, so the actual value is less than €0.11 per share.
These banks claimed only to have a liquidity crisis at the time of the bail-out, but were in fact insolvent, and therefore should not have received a bail-out.
3. “The EU, through taxpayers’ money, has so far spent €4.6 trillion in bailing out the financial sector.” Elaine Byre (2012) https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/elaine-byrne-ifsc-living-by-its-own-rules-and-not-in-the-real-world-26850576.html
Deposit are Not Safe, as EU bail-in legislation is in place since 2012 (Bail-in; the bankrupt bank takes your deposits & gives you shares in a broke bank). Your deposits are guaranteed by the State that has a debt of €237 Billion. (RTE.ie figures for late 2021) https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/0222/1282354-national-debt-report/
4. The Parasitic Finance Industry continually extracts between 30% & 40% of the profits of the productive economy.
“Finance of course has to make a profit in its own right to be viable; you need a financially successful profitable banking sector. But you don’t need one that’s 30 and 40% of the profits of the economy, because at that level it’s actually syphoning off money being generated in the real production, of the industrial sector, the agricultural sector and the mineral sectors.”
Prof. Steve Keen.
Banks should be a facility for the people, not a system of wealth extraction from people and the economy.
5. Investment /cuckoo funds are buying large blocks of apartments and whole estates, for their ongoing rental income, excluding ordinary people from buying homes & are pushing up prices. (They are banned in Germany since 2007.)
6. Interest Rates on Mortgages in Ireland is highest in EU at 2.69%. EU average 1.29% (Dec 2021) https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/0209/1278760-mortgage-rates/
7. Benefit of the Credit of the Nation. Constitution of Ireland The commercial banking system in Ireland (BoI, AIB, PTSB, etc.) controls the credit of the nation. They control the amount of credit created, who gets it, the price of it (interest rate) and the purpose for which it can be used. Therefore a few big bank CEO’s and their corporate board members control the credit of the Nation.
Constitution of Ireland & the Control of Credit: Article 45 2(iv) “That in what pertains to the control of credit the constant and predominant aim shall be the welfare of the people.”
This is definitely not the case.
8. Credit for the productive economy, i.e. that which creates new jobs and services is difficult to get – Big banks have little or no interest in supporting small businesses. Germany has 70% not-for-profit Public and Community banking supporting local businesses, start-up businesses and their local economy.
9. Credit Unions & the Post Offices are not allowed to compete.
Credit Unions: The CU’s with c. 3 million members are not allowed to meaningfully compete with the banks. CU’s have c. €16bn in reserves, a large portion of which by law held in the ‘Pillar’ banks (if it’s still there). They are being charged by the banks to hold their members savings. They are micromanaged by the Central Bank and even small CUs have to comply with similar regulations to big banks, incurring huge costs.
Post Office Network: The post Office network is being decimated. A successful model of Public Banking operates through the New Zealand Post Offices known as the Kiwi Bank. This option was presented to the Finance Committee and An Post as a solution to save our Post Office Network. They did not support the idea, and instead took on Agency Banking for the commercial banks. A system that has failed the Post Office Network in the UK.
10. International Financial Services Centre (ISFC)
“IFSC living by its own rules and not in the real world”
“And then there are rules that Ireland’s financial sector lives by. The rules that they make up for themselves.”
Elaine Byrne on the IFSC (2012)
https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/elaine-byrne-ifsc-living-by-its-own-rules-and-not-in-the-real-world-26850576.html
Applying an FTT (financial transaction tax) would seem appropriate; it’s simply a tax that financial services would have to pay when they buy financial instruments. A small FTT on IFSC transactions could raise billions for the state.
11. Digital ID and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which will control every transaction you will be ‘allowed’ to make. This currency will be programmable, i.e. the Government and Central Bank will decide what you can buy, who you can support, where you can spend.
12. Central Bank Act 1942, Control of the Credit of the Nation. In 1939 Seán T O’Kelly was appointed Minister of Finance. He secured the passing of The Central Bank Act1942.
On July 17th 1942, at the fifth and final stage of the Dáil debate on the “Central Banking Bill”, he argued that the owner of the credit issued by the Central Bank of Ireland should be the private property of the joint stock banker and not the property of the people of Ireland. https://web.archive.org/web/20141222212943/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0088/D.0088.194207170014.html