Thank God that b*stard is gone…

At the tender age of 43, this is my second time living through a recession, and recessions by and large are not a bad thing if you are ready for them. For most of you this is going to be a long-winded post that you may have no interest in, and I will just give my opinion on this recession that we are facing. If you’re not into this kind of thing, stop reading now, find yourself a partner of which ever sex you are into and go and do what you have to do – or just stroll down to Charlies for a pint.

Funnily enough, recessions boost the bar trade in general, and the holiday trade. The reason for this is simple and well documented – when we are going through periods like the Celtic Tiger, people feel the need to move fast with the economy and they can see others buying property and making money, and any fool could make money in those times, but not every fool could hold on to it. The stupid banks fuel the problem giving out mortgages left right and centre, and nobody can relax and enjoy life because of greed. Then you get a down turn in property and the economy and it’s cool to do nothing. People start to relax and spend their time drinking a few pints and enjoying themselves again because they don’t feel that they will miss something, and they don’t worry that others around them will move on faster than themselves.

There are those who unfortunately are under pressure to pay banks for their first home because, again, the bastards lend too much money fighting for a share of the market. It’s my opinion that those who are in that position should realise that this is much more the banks´ problem than yours. People who are struggling should get together and collectively tell the banks to go and f*ck themselves. They should pay what they can comfortably afford, and the banks can wait for the rest. If everyone did that, who are the banks going to sell the houses too? It’s time for the people to control the banks and not the other way around.

Over the last three years or so my own lads in their early 20s have been saying to me “why did you stop building houses, apartments and warehouses?” etc. I told them that everything was too expensive. Just by looking at average salaries against average house prices, and even working couples can’t afford to live at this rate. They said to me that everyone was still building and there would never be a recession again…. Mmmmmm!!!!

Unfortunately I was right and they were wrong. At that age they have only seen everything going up, people buying, buying, and no stop in sight. I am happy that they now see what can happen at an early age, just like I did in the late eighties, so that they won’t forget it for the rest of their lives. They obviously don’t remember when they were two years old and I was in and out of court with the banks trying to hold on to our house, which thankfully I did, by the skin of my teeth. But I wasn’t too worried about it, living in Ireland, the government would give you a corporation house anyway, and I knew if that’s the worst that can happen, things ain’t bad at all. This was a much bigger problem for the bank than it was for me. I would get going again and buy another house. What I do remember about those times was that there were a lot of people under serious pressure and life was grey to dark – or moral was I suppose.

Take a couple with 52,000 Euros per year net income. This is the way they will work out their finances, in this order, weekly:

mortgage 600
shopping 150
insurance 20
etc. etc.

The way it should be worked out I believe is the following way:

spending money 300
shopping 150
insurance etc. etc.

And whatever is left is what they can pay for a mortgage which would reduce the price of property and give people a quality of life.

How long will this reccesion last? I think things will go down about another 20% in the next two years and will steady, and slowly, start picking up. For sure, it will start to get a little better a year after that a/h Bush is gone.

The bottom line is that banks are greedy institutions that are only answerable to shareholders to make as much profit as possible at anyone´s expense, regardless of the consequences. Their greed blinds them from making long term steady decisions for the benefit of all including themselves. Now, because of their lack of vision and greed, they have thrown money at anyone that will take it, driving up the price of everything to a false level, which is now correcting itself (otherwise known as a “reccession”), and they are unable to keep life in balance for the public, or for themselves. As I have said before, if they lend more than a certain proven income to a couple or individual, they should be left swing and have no opportunity by law to get the money back.

If our governments can’t control them, or won’t, then we (the public) should. If everyone stopped paying their mortgage or any loan for one month, then you would see very quickly what would happen. The banks would be very accomodating very fast, and they would be begging the public instead of the public begging them, and even more of the public would be at Charlie´s having a few pints and a laugh singing along with Skin & Hide,while the greedy would be in their suits 24 hours a day, scratching their heads in offices, worried and thinking “what will we do now?” Then, after a while, the public would feel sorry for these poor assholes and agree to give them X amount per month, and we would never have a recession again as long as we don’t have another Bush, spending billions killing people.

That brings me to think again about people power. The American and English soldiers should not be waiting for Bush to withdraw them out of Iraq. They should simply say “Adios” and walk off to the airport and join the rest of us at Charlie´s for a few pints and refuse to put themselves in the way of fire, or to be firing at others.

Power and greed has the likes of Bush and the banks fcked up,which in turn has the world f*cked up. It’s a disease they have, just like cancer, and they need our help to cure these diseases. I hope none of us would walk away from someone lying on the street sick, so let’s not walk away from the opportunity to help the likes of Bush and the big w*nkers (sorry, bankers) of the world. It’s our opportunity to relieve them of their pain.

That’s enough shit for one day. Or is it shit?

Murphy

It’s so easy to write a blog post about George Bush – it’s called “Bush Bashing” – and it’s simple because it’s easy to pick on a donkey.  But here are a few of my thoughts.

How responsible is George for the state of the World today? You could say that he fucked the World up economically and humanly better than anyone else could have done, and you would be right.  Was he responsible on his own for this? No way.  But who *was*?

The stupid people of the United States were. Ok, they elected him the first time and it was a mistake, which we are all entitled to make, but not the second time!  Then you will hear folk say that the second election was rigged, but as far as I know, it was only rigged by 1 or 2%. How did he even get that close? You, the people of the United States who voted the moron in the second time are every bit as guilty as him for the huge amount of human suffering that you have caused, and the economic wellbeing of the whole f*cking planet. Your money has been spent on killing innocent human beings and you *voted* for this.

Is an army democratic or is it the case when you sign up to an army you lose the power of your actions?  If there was a secret vote taken by the troops who are in Iraq and Afghanistan, what would the outcome be?  If the outcome was that this was a wrong war to be fighting, would they have the freedom to leave Iraq without losing their jobs as soldiers which they use the income to provide for their families?

Any decent human being, in my opinion, has a right to earn an income as a soldier, to defend their country or fight against right and wrong in the human race, but they were led into battle under the pretence that Sadam had the power to take out England and the States with nuclear power.  The fact is he hadn’t the power to even take out Iraq and when the Allied Forces realised that, should the soldier on the ground not have the power to decide to go home without facing court marshall, or the threat of losing his job?  He was sent there under the pretence of protecting his people, which is why he signed up to the army in the first place.

I remember watching live TV of the invasion of Iraq and thinking to myself “what is going to happen here”? I, like everyone else, thought that the Allies were really up against it and that anything could happen to the whole World, with all this nuclear power.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when, not long into the war, I was watching the US troops pulling down a statue of Sadam in Baghdad and then putting a US flag on top of it, which was the real feeling amongst a lot of the US troops on live television.  Obviously someone realised quickly that this was wrong and the flag only lasted about 30 seconds.  I won’t forget that 30 seconds ever.  It made a huge statment to me.

It’s also my humble opinion that Bush should face a court for his *war crimes* and that he be imprisoned accordingly.  I also feel all those who voted for him should pay the price as well, even though they already are, in as much as US citizens are welcome nowhere now and are looked upon as, at the very least, very stupid, arrogant people.  This of course is not true of all of them as there were an awful lot of them who did not vote for Bush the second time around, or even the first.

The Irish side to this story was highlighted on Paddy’s Day when Bertie Ahern was pictured smiling like a Cheshire Cat giving Bush a bowl of shamrock, which is now flushed down the sewers and has ended up in some waste facility in Washington.  We all know how much the the American economy contributes to the Irish economy and that without that support we are doomed – but let me tell you now (as Ian Paisley used to say) that the companies and their MDs in the States that have manufacturing facilities in Ireland are not stupid, and they know that this war is ridiculous.  When Bertie goes and looks so comfortable with Bush, I hope he knows first of all that he is not representing 99%of the Irish population, and second of all, that he is not fooling the people who really matter in the US, as far as the economy goes.  Bertie, if you smile and mix with a fool, you could very easily become one.

Us Irish have great connections in the States and a lot of good connections with very honourable people.  We should not promote or be seen to endorse the a*seholes over there who believe that this war is justified, because then the decent US citizens won’t have any regard for us – and rightly so.  On the other hand, when we are so reliant on the US, I can understand the way of thinking “let’s stick with Bush, as there are only 9 months of the moron left anyway”.  I think my first point stands up better.  It would be much better for Bertie to say to the citizens of the States that we are 100% behind the States in any way that is correct, but regardless of how much we depend on ye, we will not endorse a stupid war like this.  I feel we would command a lot more respect from the real people that matter in the States just by being honest, and for our honesty long after Bush is gone and hopefully locked up.

Finally, I do believe that Bertie also thinks that this war and Bush are a disaster, but he feels that it would be the wrong thing to come out with it. I could be very very wrong here presuming so much, but I doubt it.

The next piece I want to bore you with has to do with why wars happen anyway, in my opinion, and the human condition that causes them.

Another day.

Murphy

P.S. George, if by any chance you still have that bowl of shamrock, shove it up your anal passage until it reaches your false teeth.
Lots of love from the Irish on Paddy’s Day!