Halleluiah, praise the lord, wonder of wonders, we have – yet again – turned a corner.
I say ‘a’ corner because I’m not sure whether Brian Cowen’s corner is the same as Brian Lenihan’s or indeed the same as the many other corners we constantly seem to be turning.
I’m not an economist, just an angry observer so the following ramble may be a complete misinterpretation of what’s going on.
We have just handed over another two billion to Anglo Irish Bank. The handing over of this money to this bankrupt bank is, quite literally, no different from throwing it into a furnace.
This money immediately becomes part of the national debt so, for many decades to come, Irish citizens will be paying back every cent in successive budgets.
And remember, the Government is standing by with at least another 8 billion to throw into Sean Fitzpatrick’s furnace.
With hardly a murmur of comment the guts of a billion was spent last week to recapitalise (nationalise) EBS.
The cost of just these two events completely wipes out the savings planned in the next budget. The Government is scrapping the bottom of the barrel looking for ways to squeeze more and more out of taxpayers who have little left to give.
The gap between what the state spends and what it takes in is over 18 billion and increasing by about a billion every month. For me, the figures just do not add up.
The Government is getting great praise from abroad for its slash and burn policies and politicians and naive commentators are lapping it up but how much more can the Irish people take?
I believe that if Irish citizens continue to allow themselves be stripped of everything they own they will be reduced to a quality of life similar to that of the 1940/50s.
Even that would be a manageable situation if the country was led by honest, courageous and visionary politicians. But the political system is corrupt and rudderless, there’s billions owed on personal loans and credit cards and at least 70 billion owed as a result of the bank bailout.
It seems to me that for this government’s polices to work Irish citizens will have to accept living in absolute, grinding poverty for generations to come – how likely is that?
I don’t believe we’re turning corners, it’s more like we’re going around in a circle and that circle is sinking rapidly.
But then again I could have slipped into a parallel universe two years ago and am now living under the delusion that catastrophe is staring us in the face.
Hopefully my escape from this delusional world is – just around the corner.