Irish Credit Unions; Being Taken Over by Irelands Central Bank; Under Supervision of European Central Bank ? !

Credit Unions have provided an alternative to the big banks to people all over the world. They have become more popular than ever since the financial crisis.

Ireland's central bank has pretty much been given control of Ireland's credit unions under a "Resolution Scheme", which is being claimed is actually to protect investors from failing credit unions......and not as the majority of people see it, a way for the banks to gain control of the billions that are invested in Ireland's credit Unions. This resolution is backed up by the ECB.

73% of Ireland's population are signed up to credit unions, the second highest proportion of any country in the world

This 'take over' of the credit unions of Ireland by the Irish central bank is being over seen by the European Commission. How much influence Europe is having on this development is unclear, but is certainly something that any person with money invested in a credit union should be concerned with, where ever they may be in the European Union, or in fact the world.

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One of the reasons that have been used to justify this take over (It's not actually a take over as we know it but the central bank now has enough influence on the credit unions to determine whether they can continue to compete with the banks)  is that credit unions no longer comply to new regulations which affect the credit unions.............But this is because rules for credit unions have been changed........Many supporters of credit unions believe the new regulations have been brought in to create problems for the credit unions........to make it impossible for them to compete with banks..........I have to say that there were experts on the finance system, whilst unable to explain their opinions through the standard main stream media who have actually been warning about this scenario for some years. They also warned that the credit unions were being set up to fail.........

.........Remarkably, many credit unions have failed since and have become insolvent...........Because they began investing in the same kind of things the big banks had been investing in, but losing substantially. There is no doubt that some of the losses incurred will have ended up as gains for the big banks.......But there is no corruption involved....You know the big banks would never be involved in that!

Landlords Increasing Property Portfolios are Potentially Adding £700 Million a Year to the National Debt...And That's Just With Their New Property Purchases ! !

Questions need to be asked and need answering about all these austerity measures which are taking place all over the world......The reason being that the policies are supposedly put in place to reduce the national debt of the countries being affected by the austerity cuts. But if any thing, the austerity measures appear to be making the situation worse.

The national debt was going out of control long before the financial crisis....Why ??..

In the case of the UK we often hear our leading politicians going on about the need to reduce the national deficit. In fact the politicians mention the deficit so often that you might then forget about the national debt or may think they are one and the same thing........The bad news about the deficit is;  Reducing it simply isn't enough to help the economy.......To make a difference you need to wipe it out completely......Only when the deficit becomes zero and moves into the positive, can it help reduce the national debt. Whilst the deficit exists it will also be a burden on the national debt.......Even whilst the deficit reduces, it will still continue to add to the national debt until it becomes zero !!

(The deficit is the shortfall between the cost of all government out goings and what comes in to the government, in taxes and other sources of income. In other words the amount the government is having to borrow to cover the costs of the country's public services). 

Any way to get back to the main point of this post........
The government tells us it is trying to reduce the deficit and thus presumably wipe it out so reducing the national debt........

The problem is.....Whilst the government has been unable to persuade banks to lend money to ordinary people to buy homes, the banks have been causing both the deficit and the national debt to rise!.......
The reason this is, is that lending to ordinary people to buy their own homes actually reduces the burden on the government and tax payers......The reason for this is in the way the benefits system works......

If people buy their own home with a mortgage they have got from a bank, tax payers do not become responsible for the payments on that mortgage when the home buyer loses their job. They may be entitled to unemployment benefits but the tax payer does not become burdened with the housing benefits for the costs of the home. However if this same person rented their home instead of buying it through a mortgage, the costs then become the responsibility of the government and the tax payers....!! We pay housing benefits to those who rent their homes, but not to those who buy their homes !  Because the government is in debt and tax payers are not covering the governments expenditure, these landlord costs are currently adding to the national debt !.....
.......But it gets worse.........
Recently in England......In fact over the last ten years, landlords have been buying more properties than the combined purchases of ordinary domestic home buyers!

In one year, 2011 to 2012, £22.7 Billion was paid in housing benefit in the U.K.

Housing benefits are paid to something in excess of 25% of homes owned by private landlords.

 Landlords are increasing the number of homes they own by something in the region of 8% a year!

 Based on those figures about 300,000 properties are being added to the potential housing benefits bill each year.....If  the unemployment level of 25% in homes owned by private landlords continues, then within the next year, we can expect to be paying housing benefits for a quarter of these homes. About 80,000 then.

The housing benefit on these extra homes per year at the national average of £736 per month comes to.........

 .............. an extra £706,560,000 

This 25% figure is much higher than the unemployment statistics, but this is because you are more likely to be unemployed if you rent. For some, this can be explained by the tenant's inability to get a mortgage so they rent......But for a number which we can only estimate.......They are unemployed because they rent their home! Costs of rented homes cost more and need more of an income to cover their costs......If employers can not meet the demands of landlords, the people will become unemployed or the local economy will be affected in away that it will be difficult for businesses to flourish and create the needed jobs.......
.......Landlords are not only adding to the national debt, but making it more difficult for tax payers to pay off the national debt, by adding to unemployment and reducing the number of tax payers! 

Of course my figures are assuming that the costs of renting property from landlords is the reason that 25% of the tenants will be unemployed. This is a difficult one to prove. But I would certainly put money on the fact that many people who move into the new properties of landlords over the next year will find themselves unemployed in the near future and the costs of their home will be a major influence. A good government wouldn't allow this to happen.  

Home ownership is falling and is currently at it's lowest level for decades. Whilst landlords are increasing the numbers of homes they control.

The banks have therefore made profits for themselves, through lending fortunes to landlords which are in fact debt which has been added to the national debt...............(Which the banks are making money from!!!!)....(Also this was actually part of what we were told was the boom- which affected house prices!.....- also funded by the national debt !!!).........

...............But then the obvious question is ;
"Why would the banks favor the lending of mortgages to landlords as opposed to lending of mortgages to ordinary people who work and deserve the right the right to buy their own home ?"

~Unfortunately, I have already answered that question. It's all about safety nets. The banking system is full of safety nets which unfortunately protect the bankers but not us. In fact we are the safety net in this particular case...All of the tax payers !

The reason why banks prefer lending to landlords as opposed to the rest of us is because of the fact that a person renting can claim housing benefit as soon as they become unemployed. This means that mortgage payments that a landlord is paying are less of a risk..........Less of a risk to the bank lending.....But a bigger risk to the economy.........In fact not a risk to the economy, but a guaranteed blatant destruction of the economy !

There are some other important issues here......

One.......

The banks caused the national debt of the UK and many other countries to rise significantly due to bail outs which were given to the banks by governments after the financial crisis in 2007.

two......

The banks seem to be behaving as if these bail outs were a Heaven sent God given gift which they have no need to be thankful for or repay.

three......

We are not asking the banks to repay our money, but to carry out their duty to use our savings and investments responsibly, which they are clearly continuing to take for granted.

Before the financial crisis and since then, the policy of banks giving preferential treatment to the lending of mortgages to landlords has been making money for the banks.......But during this time....Before and after the financial crisis......the profits of both the landlords and the bankers funding the landlords has been funded by adding the costs to the national debt !!

four.......

Whilst the banks are making decisions on how our invested money is being used, they are continuing to invest it unwisely in the name of their own profits.........But banks don't use their own money for investments...It belongs to us.......

Five

The benefits bill is rising and will continue to rise, even if unemployment falls, because as shown above, landlords are buying up property and raising the overall costs of housing benefits. Neither the unemployed occupiers of the homes or the tax payers or the government can afford to pay the housing benefit bill. Yet landlords continue to be paid through adding to the national debt......With every one else suffering wage cuts and job losses in every other business, surely it is time for some cuts in the landlord business. The landlords currently being our biggest cost behind the banks.......Regardless of whether their income should be cut, we need to stop the banks lending them money, which is ultimately being piled up on top of our national debt......And an other banking crisis is surely on the horizon.

Conclusion
The only logical explanation for the government's 'ring fencing' of landlords from austerity or cuts to it's sources of finance through the banks, is because landlords are a good source of profits for banks....

The problem is much of those profits for the banks and the landlords are actually being funded by the national debt. 

So when banks lend to a landlord, they know there is a safety net which is the government and the tax payer.

But as the national debt rises the government is trying to close the gap with Austerity measures,job cuts. NHS cuts. Fire service cuts........Which add to the benefits bill.....and the national debt.
The action taken by the government that is being inflicted on millions of innocent people is causing suffering and in extreme cases in the U.K. losses of life.............Whilst this happens the landlords appear to have been ring fenced from the cuts....along with the banks.
We have let the government get away with this for too long. What they are doing is not working and never will. They are simply maintaining the financial system at the expense of the economy. The national debt problem will simply be handed to the next government and will not be paid. The landlords will continue to be ring fenced from austerity as they provide income for the banks......  .....Landlords are just another way for the banks to get on payrolls of our lives.................

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Whilst we continue to hear David Cameron and George Osborne trying to justify the cuts and austerity, they often claim they are "...paying down the national debt....", this just isn't happening.