Stop Supporting NAMA says GP candidate
A Green Party local election candidate has called today for the Green’s to stop supporting NAMA. Arthur Doohan, a former international banker and derivatives trader says ” the Minister of Finance has turned himself into a cartoon character – like ‘Wily Coyote’ trying to catch a piano that has fallen off a cliff. He will end up getting crushed.”
Mr. Doohan says “there are only two rules in banking – don’t bet the farm and know when to stop putting good money after bad. The Minister understands neither. Exactly as has happened in the US, we are discovering that supporting banks is a black hole for our money. Everytime you give them a billion they come back 90 days later looking for another. As a nation we have much better things to do with our precious few billions.”
“The State issued its Guarantee in good faith, presuming that the banks had been well run and the borrowers were competent and prudent. Now, we find excess, greed, waste and incompetence under every dirty deal. There can be no State underwriting of this behaviour. No insurance policy is valid if the insured is a fraud. The State should honour its obligation to its citizens but it is mad for the Government to be underwriting London fund managers speculating on Hungarian shopping malls through Irish builders.”
“NAMA is seen by most as an attempt to prop up the fate of the ‘Golden Circle’. Whether it is or not, that perception is damaging the fabric of democracy in this State. The risks are being borne by the many for the few. The real risk is that the country is being set up for more than a decade of stagnation which will squander the achievements of the Celtic Tiger rather than 18 months of radical surgery. This economy needs to get back to where it was in 2001 and the sooner the better.”
Arthur Doohan worked in London in the 80’s and 90’s for European and American banks, managing multi-billion interest rate risk portfolios and pricing some of the earliest derivative contracts ever done there. He left in late 90s, disillusioned with the greed and the grind. He is a self employed IT consultant. He is running for a seat on South Dublin CC.
“This proposal was not on the table when we had our Convention. It has not been discussed by the Green Party. We are being asked to bet the farm on behalf of this and future generations by the biggest gamblers in the land. FF deals and strokes have a history of benefiting the few at the expense of the many – just look at the deal with religious orders. We need to discuss NAMA before committing ourselves to possible financial ruin. I will oppose it when it come befores the Party, hopefully at a Special Convention.”
