Senator David Norris' address to Seanad Eireann (the Irish Senate)

In Sept. 2007, fourteen months before Ireland's bank bailout, I resigned from my position as the Risk Manager of UniCredit Bank Ireland. I did that in order not to incriminate myself. I have spent the last 4 years seeking justice. On Feb. 23rd., 2010, I was fortunate to have Senator David Norris raise the matter in Seanad Eireann (the Irish Senate), and request a response from the Minister of Finance, Mr. Brian Lenihan. Senator Norris concluded by stating that:
"...there is ministerial responsibility in this matter. This is a grossly serious matter which has been reported to the Financial Regulator. A man has lost his job as a result. He honourably resigned. The degree of breach was 40 times the accepted margin. This is a disaster. If we are not prepared to face the issue and investigate it when it has been laid before the House, there is absolutely no hope for the financial system or its reputation worldwide...How can the Financial Regulator investigate himself? He was in breach of his responsibility."
http://debates.oireachtas.ie/seanad/2010/02/23/00012.asp
In Nov. 2011, Emma Alberici, Europe correspondent for ABC TV, told my story as part of her documentary 'Going Rogue' which featured Nick Leeson and Sir John Vickers among other interviewees. It is ironic that at a time when the Irish tax-payer is bailing out un-secured bond holders, my story which occurred in Dublin, is deemed of interest to the Australian TV license payer. Please click on 'play video' on the following link:
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2011/s3367080.htm
VRT, Belgian state-TV, aired this interview with me on March 6th., 2013. My Interview begins in minute 27:
Het verdriet van Europa: Zeepbellen blazen (The sadness of Europe: Bursting bubbles)
VRT, Belgian state-TV, released extra footage of my interview on March 8th., 2013. (in English):
Whistleblower.IRL@gmail.com

Friday, 29 June 2012

Italian & French translations of Z.G. Herman's letter to the Financial Times


Thanks to my friends PP & MF, here are loose translations of Z.G. Herman's letter to the Financial Times of 18 June 2012. Please see my previous blog posting for the original text in English.

Italian: 
"Nei film di Hollywood le situazioni di crisi hanno quasi sempre un lieto fine e ne siamo fortemente impressi, in realtà per ottenere lo stesso risultato non siamo disposti a cambiare. Che cosa significa che in Grecia abbia vinto un partito o l’altro? Assolutamente niente. Devono ancora formare un governo, che ancora dovrà applicare effettivamente le misure necessarie (e non è ancora chiaro quali siano) soprattutto il popolo dovrà essere in grado di lavorare effettivamente con tali misure. Questo solo per la Grecia.
La Spagna è la prossima, poi l’Italia, quindi anche i paesi del Nord Europa senza parlare degli Stati Uniti, Cina, India, Australia e tanti altri. Perché?
Perché quello che stiamo "a guardare" non è una tragedia greca, nemmeno spagnola, neanche europea, il mondo intero è spinto con tenacia da un sistema che si basa sull'illusione di una costante crescita quantitativa economica in un sistema a circuito chiuso, che richiede sovrapproduzione e sovraconsumo basato su un aumento del debito. Creiamo bolle dopo bolle che cercano di ingannare il sistema, siamo governati da leggi naturali rigorose che non possono essere ingannate. Oggi sono state scoperte.
Siamo noi al centro di questo incubo di contesto globale, un sistema totalmente interconnesso, per farla breve: siamo tutti incatenati su una barca che affonda.
Qual’è la nostra prossima mossa? "


French:
‘’Les catastrophes ont toujours une issue sans conséquences dans les films hollywoodiens et nous en sommes profondément imprégnés, dans la réalité pour obtenir le même résultat nous ne sommes pas disposés à changer. Que signifie la victoire d’un parti ou d’un autre en Grèce ? Absolument rien. Ils doivent encore former un gouvernement, qui devra ensuite appliquer les mesures nécessaires (il n’est pas encore clair lesquelles) le peuple devra surtout être en mesure de travailler effectivement avec de telles mesures. Cela seulement pour la Grèce.
L’Espagne suit, ensuite l’Italie, et même les pays du nord de l’Europe, sans mentionner les USA, la Chine, l’Inde, l’Australie et tous les autres. Pourquoi?
Parce que ce que nous sommes en train d’ « observer » n’est pas un drame grec, même pas espagnol, européen non plus. Le monde entier est entrainé avec force dans un système basé sur l’illusion d’une croissance économique en circuit fermé qui requiert surproduction et surconsommation avec une dette croissante. Nous créons bulle sur bulle voulant fausser le système mais ce dernier est basé sur des lois naturelles qui ne peuvent être ignorées. Nous les découvrons aujourd’hui.
Nous nous trouvons au centre de ce cauchemar, dans un système global, complètement interdépendant, pour résumer, nous sommes enchainés les uns aux autres sur un bateau en train de couler.
Que faire maintenant ?“ 




Saturday, 23 June 2012

An observation about the current state of the global financial mess



A friend of mine sent this on to me this week. I have no idea who the author of this letter to the Financial Times is, but I think his observations are thought provoking. Especially at a time when the papers are full with the calming voices of our 'Dear', but dangerously incompetent, leaders. Well said Mr. Z. G. Herman, whoever and wherever you are.

"We are so much brainwashed by Hollywood movies that we crave a happy ending every time there is a crisis situation, but we are not willing to change in order to get it.  What does it mean that certain parties won in Greece? Absolutely nothing.  They still have to form a government, that government still has to actually apply necessary measures (and it is still unclear what those are) and most importantly the public will need to be able to actually work through those measures.  And this is only Greece.
Spain is next, then Italy, then even the Northern European countries not to mention the US, China, India, Australia and everybody. Why?
Because what we are "watching" is not a Greek drama, not even Spanish, not even European.The whole world is stubbornly pushing on with a system that is based on the illusion of constant quantitative economic growth in a closed, finite system, requiring overproduction and over consumption based on increasing debt.  We blow bubbles after bubbles trying to cheat the system but we live among strict natural laws that cannot be cheated.  And today we were found out.
On top of all this false dream we also find ourselves in a global, totally interconnected system, in other words we are chained together on a sinking boat.
So what is our next move?"
          Published in the Financial Times, 18 June 2012.

     

Monday, 7 November 2011

In response to e-mails received, a reminder of the article in Village magazine:



Still waiting for the truth from the regulator 

- Village, Dec. 2010

UniCredit breached liquidity requirements in 2007.  Matthew Elderfield nods.  The interconnectedness of banking dysfunctionality.
Michael Smith
There is a general official view that Ireland’s ethical delinquencies are in the past.  Corrupt planning stopped when the tribunals started; and bad bank-regulation stopped with the demise of Pat Neary and the production of two limited and innocuous reports by Patrick Honohan and Klaus Regling. Inconveniently for a country that has started to see regulation in black (then) and white (now) terms, the general view does not reflect the reality. Hold tight for a mind-boggling trip through the complexity of banking dysfunctionality....
Matthew Elderfield - the Financial Regulator

whistleblower.irl@gmail.com

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Senator David Norris attempts to talk about the Anglo-Irish bondholders in the Seanad (Irish Senate)


In response to queries that I have received over the last few days, I am happy to provide the links below to the protocols of the Irish senate in which Senator David Norris tried desperately to name the Anglo-Irish bond holders. One has to wonder why he was the only one who attempted to do so? Why was he really silenced?


whistleblower.irl@gmail.com     




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Seanad Eireann Debate 
Vol. 205 No. 17, 

25 November 2010




































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Seanad Éireann Debate 
Vol. 206 No. 4

7 December 2010



Senator David Norris: Information on David P.B. Norris  Zoom on David P.B. Norris  With regard to the bank guarantee, I share my colleagues’ concern. I voted against the guarantee. I also asked several pertinent questions. I asked about the exact amount of the guarantee, which was some €440 billion. Then I asked the Minister and his advisers our gross national product for the previous year. They did not know and had to go out and make a telephone call. Is that not extraordinary? When they came back, it turned out that our gross national product for that year was less than half what we were to guarantee. It was quite extraordinary and one of the principal reasons I voted against it. I am concerned that, not only in this Parliament but across Europe, politicians are playing their own narrow sectional, national and partisan games. There is no doubt the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is making a mistake when she sets her face against the development of euro bonds. This is the weapon about which I was talking last week that might help to rescue the situation and she opposes it for perfectly sound national electoral reasons. If the euro is to survive, there is an inevitability that centrifugal forces will drive it towards such centralisation. If it does not, the euro will fracture.

I believe we are entitled to know various matters about the bank guarantee. Recently I tried to put some bondholders’ names on the record but the Cathaoirleach stopped me. I will now try to do so again and, subsequently, will be looking for the Cathaoirleach to explain why he stopped me. Will the Leader confirm that one of the bondholders is Goldman Sachs? This company has been described as a vampire squid on the face of the public purse and we are entitled to know if it is one of the bondholders. Money has been taken from the people referred to by Senator MacSharry who have had to switch off their electricity supply and live in squalor, fear and the cold to pay these big financial institutions which have gambled. It is wrong, unethical and unjust. We need to know to whom we are giving the money.


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Two other articles that have been hotly discussed in the last few days are:



Who bankrupted Ireland? - Golem XIV, Nov. 2010


Now across Europe the great blame game will rumble back into play.  Our banks, your banks, their banks, or is it your feckless householders or ours, certainly can’t be theirs, they’re still doing well in Germany.  Expect lots more national stereotypes to be wheeled out for ritual defamation.
So let’s ask who it was took a dump in Ireland?.....






As Honohan’s report emerges, the Dáil is gagged - Vincent Browne


Sunday Business Post, 6 June 2010


Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan’s report on the financial collapse of the banking sector was presented to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan last Monday.

Lenihan read it then, and told his cabinet colleagues about it on Tuesday. The report is to be considered this Tuesday by the cabinet - or at least by those cabinet ministers who have decided not to go off on an unearned holiday.

When the cabinet ministers who are around have decided how to ‘‘spin’’ the report, it will be published - but only then.

.......
...the forum (ie, the Dáil) which, theoretically, is expected to enforce accountability on the executive arm of government has been bullied by the executive arm of government into remaining entirely silent on one of the most pressing issues of our time, precisely when a report on the government’s culpability for the crisis comes into the public domain.

And the sovereign people are denied knowledge of the report until the government has its spin sorted out. This is called democracy, I think. 



http://www.sbpost.ie/commentandanalysis/as-honohans-report-emerges-the-dail-is-gagged-49654.html