Tear up Blanket Bank Guarantee, Bacon warned in Full Report

[ang]

Brian Lenihan in Feb of 2009 commissioned Peter Bacon to evaluate the options for cleaning up the banks. Brian Lenihan got the report the following month. April 2009, at a press conference an abridged version of the Bacon report recommending the establishment of Nama was published.

I think Mr Lenihan needs to advise us as to why we were not given the Full report and why they yet again paid for advice they did not pursue some of what is contained in the still unpublished full report:-


In the full and as yet unpublished report, Bacon advised that Anglo Irish, Irish Nationwide, EBS and Permanent TSB be restructured.

He said that his report recommended "the consolidation of the rump of Irish Nationwide and Anglo to be sold to the highest bidder as a business franchise, or wind down the liabilities as they mature, and possibly consolidate EBS with Permanent TSB with a strong residential mortgage franchise assuming Irish Life capitalise it". The advice was clear.

"What I was saying was that Anglo should be wound down and sold to the highest bidder and the rump of Anglo and Irish Nationwide should be put together and sold to the highest bidder. And I made some recommendations that EBS could be wrapped up. I made some suggestions along those lines. In essence it was two years on before you got your four-year plan," he said.

He said he recommended a review of the blanket guarantee and restructuring the financial institutions to advance "a credible economic strategy" to bolster the workings of Nama. He said that the review he recommended of the banking guarantee included limiting the number of institutions and some types of bonds it covered.

http://www.tribune.ie/business/news/article/2011/jan/23/tear-up-blanket-bank-guarantee-bacon-warned-in-ful/

[C. Flower]

Brian Lenihan in Feb of 2009 commissioned Peter Bacon to evaluate the options for cleaning up the banks. Brian Lenihan got the report the following month. April 2009, at a press conference an abridged version of the Bacon report recommending the establishment of Nama was published.

I think Mr Lenihan needs to advise us as to why we were not given the Full report and why they yet again paid for advice they did not pursue some of what is contained in the still unpublished full report:-

http://www.tribune.ie/business/news/article/2011/jan/23/tear-up-blanket-bank-guarantee-bacon-warned-in-ful/


Interesting. I've heard Bacon interviewed on this before and found him less than convincing. As a reputed close friend of Bertie Ahern, Bacon has carried out a large number of studies on a very wide variety of economic topics. He is now facing a future in which FF contacts in positions of influence will be thinner on the ground. He appears to be wanting to distance himself from his role in proposing NAMA.

This caught my eye -
"The scale was so great that there was always going to be a significant chance that we would end up where we ended up – seeking external assistance in respect of sovereign debt – regardless," he said.

He knew that we were sunk, but rolled up at the press conferences saying NAMA was going to make everthing hunky dory :D

EDIT: Bacon is saying that he knew at the time he wrote the NAMA report that Ireland was not able to fund the losses of the bank and would lose economic sovereignty in attempting to do so.

Did he ever mention this to anyone ?

[disability student]

Brian Lenihan in Feb of 2009 commissioned Peter Bacon to evaluate the options for cleaning up the banks. Brian Lenihan got the report the following month. April 2009, at a press conference an abridged version of the Bacon report recommending the establishment of Nama was published.

I think Mr Lenihan needs to advise us as to why we were not given the Full report and why they yet again paid for advice they did not pursue some of what is contained in the still unpublished full report:-



http://www.tribune.ie/business/news/article/2011/jan/23/tear-up-blanket-bank-guarantee-bacon-warned-in-ful/

It's quite clear that Comical Lenny knew it all along after he had seen that report. Again it's clear that he didn't take that advice on board as who did he listen to whose advice, that paved the way to the total blanket guarantee??

Hence there is a huge question mark about Lenihan's judgement/decisions as a Minister for Finance re all the decisions that he had made in the past. For instance, 'cheapest bailout in the world', 'we have turned the corner' etc. You could see from his comments that his past judgement/s went wrong.

It reflects badly on him after the above mentioned article.

[TotalMayhem]

It reflects badly on him after the above mentioned article.

Do you think the self declared poster boy gives a damn about reflections?

[disability student]

Do you think the self declared poster boy gives a damn about reflections?

Self declared poster boy has a nice ring to it re Comical Lenny. No, He doesn't give one fig about it. Deluded and out of touch, at times grandiose when i saw him re this week in politics tonight.

His eyes- he's not that happy at the moment the way the things are going for him. Btw, i don't give a fig re him as he doesn't give a damn about us re IMF and the budget.

Michael Noonan's masterpiece in Primetime cracked his shell/facade as Comical Lenny thought that he was invincible when he spoke.

[ang]

As far as I'm concerned it's another advisor trying to disconnect from the poison of FF.

Having said that if there was to have been logic to Nama it was to be found in removing losses and breaking up banks afterwards which is what Peter Bacon suggested in his full report.

It is quite obvious the Government picked out the "bits they liked" from these reports and ran with them.

I want to know who did the "picking" and why

[C. Flower]

As far as I'm concerned it's another advisor trying to disconnect from the poison of FF.

Having said that if there was to have been logic to Nama it was to be found in removing losses and breaking up banks afterwards which is what Peter Bacon suggested in his full report.

It is quite obvious the Government picked out the "bits they liked" from these reports and ran with them.

I want to know who did the "picking" and why

Will FG/Labour release all these unseen reports and redacted/censored notes ? A good question to ask if anyone is at election meetings.


This caught my eye -
"The scale was so great that there was always going to be a significant chance that we would end up where we ended up – seeking external assistance in respect of sovereign debt – regardless," he said.

He knew that we were sunk, but rolled up at the press conferences saying NAMA was going to make everthing hunky dory :D

Bacon is saying that he knew at the time he wrote the NAMA report that Ireland was not able to fund the losses of the banks and would lose economic sovereignty in attempting to do so.

Did he ever mention this to anyone ?

[ang]

Well it was certainly in the report so obviously whoever viewed the report would have knowledge of this.

[C. Flower]

Brian Lenihan in Feb of 2009 commissioned Peter Bacon to evaluate the options for cleaning up the banks. Brian Lenihan got the report the following month. April 2009, at a press conference an abridged version of the Bacon report recommending the establishment of Nama was published.

I think Mr Lenihan needs to advise us as to why we were not given the Full report and why they yet again paid for advice they did not pursue some of what is contained in the still unpublished full report:-

http://www.tribune.ie/business/news/article/2011/jan/23/tear-up-blanket-bank-guarantee-bacon-warned-in-ful/

Peter Bacon was just interviewed along with Mike Soden about Brian Lenihan by George Lee on "The Business".
My notes - for what they are worth -

P Bacon mid Jan 2009 - interview on "The Business" -

Called to 45 min meeting with Lenihan and notes were taken by a Senior civil servant who took copious notes for 40 minutes and never said a word. Met again a few weeks later. Within an hour an assignment agreed - as an advisor. 22nd 23rd Feb. Loose enough arrangement.
First meeting.

It was clear "There was a strange sense of foreboding around the table. It was like watching a slow train crash"..."I think the extent 156.4 billion euro is the extent of this problem." I never changed that number. After that meeting a senior civil servant said "is there any way that you can change that number."
"A judgement was made by senior civil servants (to leave it out)- if you start there, it will be shutters"

PB at time of announcement of NAMA - April 2009 - BL asked "Is this going to work" - PB said a wider call was needed on competitivity and BL said this was "not my call". FF colleagues didn't appreciate how serious it was.

Mike Soden - "I got a call from the D o F to take part in the banks commission..." Brian Lenihan called "Michael (Soden ?) about going on to the Board- a number of copies of your book has been bought and read.

PB " i met with him a month or six weeks before the bailout announcement was made - I hadn't seen him for 12 months - he was very downcast - I think he gave up."
He was a man who had given his all".

"Soden - they were in a dreadful state of denial" (FF and civil servants)

The reference to the religious taking of minutes again raises the question as to whether it is at all credible that no one minuted the crucial meetings that decided on the Guarantee.