NAMA
or
THE DEVIL HAS TWO HORNS

Cormac ut dixit:
Is do decraib in domain
búain mela a mecnaib ibair
iscailp for conaib gerraib
longud i scellaib scibair


Where does one start ?
On Sunday 25th of October the Sunday Business Post carried the most important revelation yet about the plans made by our Minister of Finance, Brian Lenihan, to keep control of the organisation NAMA in the event of any loss of the primary vote in the next elections; ie. that, not only would Fianna Fail keep control but they would also be able to keep complete secrecy about that control.
The essence of this matter was revealed inadvertently as far as the Government is concerned who would certainly wish that we had not received this information - however someone was looking at the Eurostat Agency papers for Freedom of Information which released details of a Special Purpose Vehicle entirely separate from the Nama structure created in order to privately acquire the loans and issue government bonds which we all understood as the primary business of NAMA itself.

The government will indeed guarantee the bonds for toxic loans but if NAMA fails to recoup expected finances to pay these IOUs the government (taxpayers), as we all previously understood, will have to find the money. However the new off-shoot is not to be connected in any way to a government and is to be privately controlled. The assets which this new organisation will control will then be off the Budget balance sheets - and also acquiring additional assets from financial institutions and private loans that will run this SVP, money that Lenihan hopes will be E50 million. This new group will be a separate legal entity from NAMA ,and government partakes of a minority 49% power therein and private entrepreneurs, be they banks or their investors will have 51% stake and control of this loan portfolio.The purpose here is to keep NAMA's borrowings off the National Debt; but if faulted the debt must be paid by the taxpayer...

Will the loans be brought in from the Banks (presumably from the ECB bonds they receive for loading the original NAMA structure with toxic loans) or from subsidiary investment managers?

The new group will apparently need E100 million as a structural basic, half of which must initially be provided by the private investors. For other money, it is believed the Government is going to target pension funds to invest in this prong of the devil-horns of NAMA, or foreign asset managers. This group will be facilated with development connections to the assets behind the toxic debts in order to make money to pay a dividend, and possibly a 10% bonus to the investors, plus any money still owing on loans when the organisation is to be wound up in 10-20 years time.

Infact we see that this private SVP (NAMA) institution is the real driving organ of development for the present Government and that NAMA such as we have hitherto known it is a theatrical facade for public consumption.The SVP will have its own board of directors with autonomy of decision over day to day activity in development of assets, a majority of nominees determined by the 51% influence of the private investors and only a "government" veto " between these gamblers and ourselves the citizens to stave off any possible disaster.....

From this information we must conclude that the majority stakeholders (to be held by bankers and Fianna Fail cronies) will infact be making decisions on the future of both landbanks and development construction - for what else does "day to day activity" mean? These people are being brought together to make decisions daily - on what exactly? These people will be the control staff of the visible NAMA which cannot be lobbied by either the construction firms concerned with these toxic debts, nor by any member of the public. Although transparency has been freely used in terms of explanation, infact secrecy is the name of this game.

Remember, a SVP with 51% private monopoly over 49% government authority, a government that may hastily use a wee veto if something seems to be going "wrong", is now revealed as the driving force of Brian Lenihan's "plans". What is the measure of WRONG and indeed what is the measure of legality about this entire "solution" for Ireland's financial crisis?
by Jocelyn Braddell.

EVIDENCE OR WITNESS?

Evidence that the US is a failed state is piling up faster than I can record it.  One conclusive hallmark of a failed state is that the crooks are inside the government, using government to protect and to advance their private interests.
 Paul Craig Roberts