Brian O'Doherty's Blog  

If the Irish vote results in the Lisbon Treaty being ratified, then the leaders of the EU will get together in that back room and select a new President of Europe (or whatever he may be called–but that is what he will become). The likely candidate seems to be Tony Blair, the man from Donegal, […]

I have just sent the following as a comment to Simon Carswell in the Irish Times, today, in response to his article ” State takes the pain as NAMA tries to keep banks afloat” “Simon ,  You are saying, or at least implying, that the State is borrowing funds to bail out the banks.   “The State […]

Tonight on Prime Time Donal O’Mahoney of Davys and Karl Whelan, the finance professor who would nationalise the banks…nearly fell upon the truth about the funding in NAMA…but unfortunately Miriam intervened and forced a change of topic. Karl said that the government would have to borrow to fund NAMA and asked what’s the difference between that and […]

I have just been listening to Associate Professor Brian Lucey (- with Karl Whelan, the leader of the gang of 46 -) explaining to Morning Ireland listeners exactly what NAMA means to us as Borrowers He says that we, the taxpayers, will be borrowing this 47 or 54 billion and giving it to the banks.  […]

Based on the Minister’s statement to the Dail today, it would seem that AIB, and maybe also BOI, can do better than deal with NAMA The Minister will “buy” in total  €47 bn. of assets at “current market value” (CMV), and then pay an extra 7 bn on top in “subordinated “bonds. That’s 54 bn out […]

Today, Wednesday September 16th, is NAMA day, when our Minister of Finance, (and probably the next Taoiseach) Brian Lenihan, will announce some estimates, and hopefully some hard details of the NAMA scheme and its impact on the banks. Most of the population, gripped by irrational fear of great losses by this stage, will be anxiously […]

The government, via NAMA, will pay for the banks’ assets by issuing “NAMA Bonds”. The banks will be given bonds totaling the estimated fair value of the assets the government will agree to take off their hands. That’s the taxpayers’ “risk”…no cash is paid..just a taxpayers’ bond, if you like, ..actually a promise to pay […]

I am listening to Green Minister, Eamon Ryan talking about the great breakthrough which the Greens negotiated with their government partners–by achieving “risk-sharing” in NAMA. Eamon is a nice guy – I gave him a vote last time- but he seems clueless when it comes to economics and banking..like most political commentators, actually, including spokespersons […]

The State takes the gain, and the banks shareholders take the loss and the risk, in the NAMA scheme. The terms on which the deal is done- the value of the transferred assets and the consideration to be paid for them – should reflect this reality. I try to estimate a fair price for shareholders […]