Let's Express

I will never understand why the private gambling debts of the banks had to be socialised. When there were profits they were private but when stupidity by the private banks began returning losses, these losses became all of our responsibility. Regardless of the soft-soaping by politicians, this was immoral and wrong and for the religious among you, it was also sinful.

But short of a violent revolution, (????), it has taken root and the financial problem, not of your making or mine, now has to be repaid by us we are told. Now here is the second thing I don't understand. Every economist and political commentator agrees that the debt is just to large to be repaid. There is common agreement that whoever we owe it all to, is never going to get their money. The reason for this is that the economy is knackered. With a knackered economy we are not generating the surpluses to pay anyone we are indebted to.

That leads me to the third thing I don't understand. To get a knackered economy going again we need investment. Investment stimulates growth with resultant jobs and profits and this gets the  economy going again. But instead of investment we opted for austerity and job losses so the economy shrank. We in fact, reduced our ability to pay anything.

So then they really baffled me. We borrowed so much money to give to the banks that our debt interest alone each year is eight billion euros and we're struggling to even meet that without ever addressing the capital sums. You see, what really perplexes me is the idea of borrowing your way out of impossible debts. I just don't get it. None of us right now knows whether Baldy Noonan is borrowing billions to meet the billions in interest we are supposed to be paying back on previous money. 

But then I read an interesting fact about the euro, (and all currencies). The value of a euro is one euro only because all of us BELIEVE it is. If we ceased to believe it the euro would be worthless. By extension then, if we ceased to believe we really owed a 'squillion' euros to some foreign Johnies then this un-payable debt would simply disappear. 

That is what I am beginning to understand because in amongst the deceit and lies of the last seven years one thing has become very clear. Money, as in currency, is worthless and its only value is to scare and enslave us to those with true wealth. That is what all the bullshit is about!

I listened to Bertie Ahern yesterday talking with 'Miriam,' (our next President), and two thoughts struck me in quick succession.

Despite what we know and despite what resulted from his light-touch approach while in office, Bertie is still likable. I was introduced to him once and both then and yesterday, it was like listening to an ordinary bloke in the pub. He was down-to-earth without any of the airs and graces normally assumed by our politicians. It is hard not to like Bertie Ahern and many of us believe during the Peace Process that even Paisley began to like Bertie.

Then I also realized that I don't like Enda Kenny for fairly obvious reasons. He led us to believe that if elected he would change the face of Irish politics and we know now it was a damned lie. He opposed Irish Water in opposition and couldn't wait to set it up when in Government. The Mayo schoolteacher feigns a Statesmanlike demeanor when talking down to us but all I see and hear is a haughty teacher. He bluffs and he blusters and mouths inanities before striding away to his State car and driver.

No, I don't like Kenny and more importantly I don't trust the man. I don't much care for his cabinet either though I'l admit a sneaking regard for Varakar. Kenny had barely got his arse in the chair before he began appointing his cronies all around him. For me, this was an utter lie because it was this very practice that he was bleating against in opposition. His references to the 'Galway Tent,' were aways in relation to the practice of 'Jobs for the Boys.' Considering who to vote for at the time, I was taken in by Kenny's apparent sincerity and it was a bitter lesson later to discover it was all a lie. So if he is the leader of Fine Gael then by extension, they are all like him, that is they not to be trusted.

But liking and trusting are two different emotions and it makes me wonder which of those emotions decides the ordinary citizen faced with the ballot box. Even after his credible defense of his time in Government yesterday on radio, I still don't know if I'd trust Bertie. But I neither like nor trust Kenny so I'd probably vote Bertie instead because I like him.