Ireland were ‘pushed hard into bailout plan’ by the ECB
The Irish government accepted an EU and IMF bail-out package back in 2010 .
Former finance ministry head Kevin Cardiff says European officials used anonymous media briefings during bailout talks to undermine market confidence Ireland
Ireland was pushed into an international bailout as EU officials used backdoor media briefings to weaken the country’s standing, the former head of the country’s finance ministry said on Thursday.
Kevin Cardiff, ex-secretary general of Ireland’s Department of Finance, has also disputed former European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean Claude Trichet’s claim that he “simply” advised Dublin against burning senior bondholders at the time.
The ECB did more than “simply give advice and we shouldn’t hide from that,” he told a parliamentary inquiry into the Irish banking crisis.
At the moment we entered it, we were pushed – quite hard very hard said Kevin Cardiff, ex-secretary general of Ireland’s Department of Finance
Mr Cardiff, secretary general from 2010 to 2012, said Ireland came under enormous direct and indirect pressure to enter the €85bn (£61bn) bailout in 2010 set up by the IMF, European Commission and the ECB.
“At the moment we entered it, we were pushed – quite hard,” he told the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry, which is investigating the causes of the crisis.
“The push was in some ways direct and transparent…we knew who was doing it, we knew what they were saying.
“In other cases the pressure came indirectly via some misinformation, anonymous media briefings, reportedly coming from official sources, which acted to accelerate market pressure and create enormous pressure on Ireland to enter an EU/IMF programme – quickly.”
Mr Cardiff said he was grateful for the international expertise and commitment to Ireland’s rescue, but he slammed the undermining of democracy by “backdoor media briefings”.
“Democratic systems should not rely on undermining reputations and distributing misinformation via anonymous briefings,” he said.
A protester who lost their job amid Ireland’s financial crisis holds a placard in Dublin
However, he added the ECB had its reasons amid a wider looming crisis in Europe to push Ireland into a bailout.
At the time, it was “quite unlikely” that Ireland could finance itself the following year.
Mr Cardiff also claimed former IMF chief Dominque Strauss-Kahn was in favour of burning senior bondholders – forcing top-level investors, like institutions, to share the losses of the crash in banking stocks.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was sure he could persuade Europe, the US and other major players to come onboard.
But he was shot down by the ECB in a global conference call set up to push for the arrangement, the inquiry was told.
Europe was teetering on a serious crisis at the time, and there were fears the Irish plan would create a new Lehman Brothers-style plunge, with one ECB figure at the time warning it would wreak havoc, he added.
There were also worries about an international “bond-buying strike” on Europe.
Things could have been different – but they might have been a lot worse
The ECB warned the bailout would be pulled if Ireland insisted on senior bondholders taking their share of the losses, said Mr Cardiff.
There was “a strong negative reaction from the ECB and others and that moreover the EU-IMF programme would not go ahead if senior bondholder burden sharing was contemplated”, he said.
“Of course it was formally Ireland’s decision not to burn bondholders, but it was one of those decisions without much option.”
In the event, Ireland had no choice but to rule out the option, he testified.
Mr Cardiff was also head of the Department of Finance’s banking unit during the controversial 2008 state guarantee of six struggling banks.
The former civil service chief said there were alternatives to the blanket guarantee, and he favoured nationalising rogue lender Anglo Irish Bankand giving a broad political guarantee for the others.
Ireland, like Greece, negotiated a bail-out with the EU and IMF
Although he was overruled, he said he is still not sure which option would have been best.
The government and the banks were trying to find the least worst course of action as two banks were about to run out of money.
Anglo was facing not just a wholesale run but a “good old fashioned queues on the street run” within a day or two of the guarantee, while Irish Life and Permanent was also expected to run out of cash around the same time, he said.
“There were no cost-less options,” he added.
“Things could have been different. But they might have been a lot worse. It would have been a big gamble to wait a few more days.”
Greece, facing a possible IMF default on July 1, is negotiating with the ECB and European Commission on an aid-for-reforms deal. Both institutions have rejected accusations that they are using inappropriate pressure to convince the Greek government to accept the new bailout funds.
Pope Francis challenges the world to clean up its filth?
With a poet’s lyricism, a former chemist’s precision and a pontiff’s moral thunder, Pope Francis recast humanity’s relationship with nature in stark ethical terms, hoping to spur a warming, filthy world to clean up its act “before it’s too late.”
In issuing “Laudato Si,” his much-anticipated encyclical on climate change, the pope on Thursday took an extraordinary approach to an environmental issue often framed in the dry language of science. Francis’ teaching document is a melodic yet radical indictment, depicting a materialistic and wasteful society that is hurting the planet and its poorest people.
He challenges the world to stop pollution, to recycle and carpool and to do without air conditioning ” and makes it a moral imperative.
“The exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits and we still have not solved the problem of poverty,” he writes.
The pope’s “marching orders for advocacy,” as the head of the U.S. conference of bishops calls it, comes as the world nears make-or-break time for international climate change negotiations that start late this year in Paris.
“This is a seminal moment in world history because the pope now is the leading global voice on climate change,” said prominent Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley, who has written both on the church and environmentalism. “The pope brings extraordinary clout connecting Christianity and humanism to the protection of natural resources.”
Francis said he hoped his paper would lead both ordinary people in their daily lives and decision-makers at the Paris U.N. climate meetings to a wholesale change of mind and heart, urging all to listen to “both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has made the issue of climate change his top priority since taking the reins of the world body 8 years ago, thanked the pope “for taking such a strong stand on the need for urgent global action.”
In some ways, the pope’s encyclical and its prayers serve as an invocation to the climate talks.
“As we prepare for global climate negotiations in Paris this December, it is my hope that all world leaders ” and all God’s children ” will reflect on Pope Francis’s call to come together to care for our common home,” President Barack Obama said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
Scientific data released Thursday backed up Francis’ concerns. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released figures showing that last month was the hottest May around the globe in 136 years of global records. NOAA calculated that the first five months of 2015 made up by far the hottest year on record, with very real effects: some 2,200 people have died in India’s heat wave.
While the encyclical drew praise from church, science and government leaders, some politically conservative Catholics criticized its economic analysis, and some U.S. Republican politicians said religion had no place in climate policy. Some in the fossil fuel industry took the unusual tack of citing Francis’ focus on the poor, arguing that his thinking would hurt and not help the disenfranchised.
“No, I’m sorry, it’s a political issue,” said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. “Most people have their minds made up on this issue, so any more rhetoric about the issue doesn’t really add a heck of a lot more to it.”
Scientists who for more than 50 years have been talking about the dangers of global warming say this could break the inertia that has characterized climate negotiations. With their data and computer models, scientists appealed to logic; the pope sought to engage the soul.
“This is exactly what we need,” said Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who as an evangelical Christian has talked about faith and warming. “We need leaders who speak to values, connecting the dots between values and climate change.”
John Schellnhuber, the German scientist credited with devising the internationally adopted goal of trying to prevent another degree Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) goal from now, said the pope is harnessing two “strong powers in the world.”
“If faith and reason work together hand-in-hand, we can overcome this crisis,” Schellnhuber said.
At the heart of Francis’ theological argument is the concept of “integral ecology,” which gives a more central role for the environment in longstanding Catholic social teaching by linking destruction of nature with injustices such as poverty, hunger, inequality and violations of human dignity.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, said the encyclical wasn’t a directive from Francis to people in politics or business that “you must do this.”
“That doesn’t appear in the document. He is saying, ‘Here is the moral frame of reference. I would like that everyone would work together on this so we individually can get together and say what could we do,'” Wuerl said.
The encyclical covers all sorts of environmental issues, including waste, extinctions, genetically modified organisms and the lack of clean water.
Addressing “every living person on this planet,” Francis calls for a bold cultural revolution to correct what he said was a “structurally perverse” economic system in which the rich exploited the poor.
Closing his document with “a prayer for our Earth,” the pope beseeches God: “Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction. Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the Earth.”
His words brought Deke Arndt, a top U.S. federal climate scientist and Catholic, to tears.
“There are certain things that science will never be able to say so beautifully,” he said. “I think it speaks across the spectrum of human experiences … It speaks to the soul and the inner part of us.”
No encyclical has ever drawn this much popular and sustained attention. The hashtag #LaudatoSi was trending Thursday on Twitter.
Citing the deforestation of the Amazon, the melting of Arctic glaciers and the deaths of coral reefs, Francis rebuked “obstructionist” climate doubters who “seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms.” And he blamed politicians for listening more to oil industry interests than Scripture, common sense or the cries of the poor.
“The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth,” he wrote.
He praised a “less is more” lifestyle, one that shuns air conditioners and gated communities in favor of car pools, recycling and being in close touch with the marginalized. He called for courageous, radical and farsighted policies to transition the world’s energy supply from fossil fuels to renewable sources, saying mitigation schemes like the buying and selling of carbon credits won’t solve the problem.
The leading skeptic in the U.S. Congress, Republican Sen. James Inhofe, said he feared the encyclical will be used by “alarmists” to push policies that will lead to big tax increases. He said the poor will actually “carry the heaviest burden” of policies to phase out fossil fuels with renewable energy sources.
The pope will address Congress in September and is expected to talk about the environment, but House leadership isn’t promising action addressing the pontiff’s concerns.
“There’s a lot of bills out there. I’m not sure where in the process these bills may be,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Boehner, a Catholic, said he respects the pope’s right to speak out on the issue.
On the eve of the encyclical’s release, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, a Catholic convert, said he didn’t believe “we should politicize our faith. I think religion ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting into the political realm.”
But Francis argues that there really is no distinction between human beings, their faith and the environment: They are all part of a single integral ecology.
“Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth,” he writes.
Physical elderly abuse now at record levels in Ireland
According to HSE report
Almost half of all reported cases alleged abuse by adult children of the victims
A total of 2,592 cases of elder abuse were reported to the HSE in 2014, 300 of which involved physical abuse.
Almost 300 cases of physical abuse of older people were reported to the HSE in 2014 – with half of the abuse being carried out by adult children of the victims, according to figures just released.
The physical abuse was however just 12 per cent of referrals which included financial abuse, psychological abuse and neglect. In total there were 2,592 reported cases in 2014 – the highest number since specific services in this area were set up in 2007.
The HSE defines elder abuse as “a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person, or violates their human and civil rights”.
Almost one in three referrals to the HSE elder abuse services complained of psychological abuse, while one in five alleged financial abuse. Neglect was cited in 15 per cent of cases and self-neglect – elderly people expressing concern that they could not look after themselves – represented almost one in four of all referrals.
The HSE report also showed that two-thirds of all referrals related to women, the majority of whom were more than 80 years old. The referral rate was between 3½ and four times greater in the over 80s when compared with the 65-79 age category. The public health nursing service continues to be the main referral source.
Relatives
As has been characteristic of previous years, the alleged perpetrators are adult children in 49 per cent of cases. The next highest category is partner/husband or wife at 19 per cent, while “other relative” accounts for 15 per cent of alleged perpetrators. Some 5 per cent of cases were classified as “other”, which included landlords and lodgers.
Commenting on the figures, Paschal Moynihan, a HSE specialist in older persons services, said anyone who has a concern about abuse of an older person should contact their GP, public health nurse or any healthcare worker.
Since the establishment of the service in 2007, there have been almost 44,000 attendees on elder abuse training/awareness sessions.
The HSE has produced a booklet, Open Your Eyes: Protect Yourself from Elder Abuse which is available online and can be viewed and downloaded from the HSE website.
A DVD is also available from elder-abuse dedicated officers and HSE senior case workers and a helpline is available on 1850 24 1850 Monday to Saturday, 8am-8pm.
Wearing skinny jeans can damage your health,
According to a new report
The term ‘fashion victim’ took on a whole new meaning recently when a woman was hospitalised for four days from damage caused by wearing skinny jeans.
Medical experts have warned that the flattering jeans could put wearers at risk, as excessive movement and squatting could cause muscle or nerve damage.
Unnamed medical experts say that excessive movement while wearing the crotch hugging legwear can harm nerves and muscle fibres in the legs and feet.
A report in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry detailed how one unlucky woman had to be hospitalised for four days after she was cut out of her skinny jeans.
She had helped a relative move house the day before and spent many hours squatting while emptying boxes and moving furniture about the place.
What do we learn from this? Never. Help. Anyone.
“Her calves were so swollen that her jeans had to be cut off her,” the report said. The fashion victim had been found on her floor, unable to move, having developed compartment syndrome, which sounds like zero craic.
“She couldn’t move her ankles or toes properly and had lost feeling in her lower legs and feet.
“Investigations revealed she had damaged muscle and nerve fibres in her lower legs as a result of prolonged compression while squatting which her tight jeans had made worse, the doctors suggest.”
Is the food we are eating ageing us?
Some foods age you faster than others, according to a dietician.
The food we eat can be beneficial or detrimental to our health, depending on the individual ingredient. But now it’s been claimed that certain foods can actually age you quicker than others. The ingredients have been identified because of elements that either put stress on the body, cause cell damage or contribute to ageing cells in the long term.
“As a general rule of thumb, dietary patterns with a high glycaemic load [high in carbohydrates] increase inflammatory processes in the body over time, while diets high in salt result in fluid retention, swelling and increase pressure on a number of the body’s systems,” dietician Susie Burrell told the Daily Mail Australia.
For example, grabbing a muffin with your morning coffee can contribute to long-term harm. This is because high levels of sugar can actually change the kind of collagen the body produces, leaving it looking and feeling soft.
“The potent mix of saturated fat and sugar mean that processed carbohydrates are a nightmare when it comes to increasing inflammation in the body,” she explained.
Chai lattes also come under the high-sugar banner, especially as many coffee shops don’t make them with actual chai leaves, instead using pre-mixed syrup.
“Pre-mixed chai can contain as much as six teaspoons of sugar in a single serve and when you combine that with the sugars found naturally in milk, you have a sugar bomb hidden in a seemingly healthy drink choice,” Susie continued.
A sugar overload can form harmful molecules that damage protein in the body and once again, collagen gets a bit of a battering, leading to brittle skin, which in turn causes wrinkles.
With this in mind, people might think about switching to fruit juice instead as their morning beverage, but this can put you on the fast track to ageing too. This is because one glass of bottled fruit juice has more sugar than people might expect.
“Not only is fruit juice highly acidic, which destroys tooth enamel, but with more than six teaspoons of sugar per glass, juice will send your insulin levels sky rocketing,” she continued. “The high insulin levels are linked to both inflammation and weight gain.”
While all this information may leave you wondering what on earth you can do to slow down ageing, there are foods that can work in your favour. These include fruit and vegetables, whole grains, fatty fish high in omega-3 and nuts.
Tiny octopus is so cute, local scientist might name it ‘adorabilis’
This flapjack octopus in the genus Opisthoteuthis was photographed about 1,080 feet below the surface in Monterey Bay.
Flapjack octopus can swim by moving their fins, pulsing their webbed arms, pushing water through their funnel for jet propulsion, or all three at once. They often swim up off the bottom and hover a bit just above the seafloor, looking for small crustaceans, worms and other food.
MBARI researchers are working with aquarists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium to learn more about flapjack octopuses.
Hideous denizens live in the deep sea. But so does a cute wide-eyed, pink and squishy little octopus.
The newly discovered, cartoon-like creature is so cute that “adorable” might become part of its scientific name. It started with a joke from a Moss Landing scientist who’s faced with identifying the species.
“I thought that since this animal is so adorable, I should name it adorabilis,” laughed Stephanie Bush, postdoctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. “I’m supposed to be this really serious stoic scientist, but I’m still human. It’s just so cute.”
The fist-sized octopus has been making waves online since Science Friday recently released a video celebrating Cephalopod Week, which begins Friday. Many fawning over the rare cephalopod have their fingers crossed in hopes Bush will name it Opisthoteuthis adorabilis.
But identifying a species is a painstaking process that can take years. While researchers first collected this unidentified octopus in the early 1990s, Bush is the first to take on describing the species.
“Giving it a name is one of the easiest parts,” she said. “We have to collect multiple specimens. There’s a lot of counting and measuring essentially. You have to differentiate one species from others.”
This nameless octopus might look familiar. It’s the same genus as Pearl, the pink flapjack octopus (Opisthoteuthis califoriana) in the film “Finding Nemo.” Scientist thought they were the same animal until Bush noted key distinctions while working with the two species for the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Tentacles” exhibit last year.
Though precious, their pinkish color is common among deep-sea creatures. Since red light doesn’t reach the black waters of the deep sea, animals who are red appear black. The camouflage helps them avoid predators and attack prey, which is worms and tiny crustaceans for this octopus.
They live along the California Coast in abyssal depths up to 2,600 feet. Bush found her specimens in the Monterey Bay. Their gelatinous body measures about 7 inches in diameter and their arms are webbed.
Though the flapjack octopus species mostly sits on the deep sea floor, it swims by flapping its fan of arms to propel through the water, steering with its fins.
One of the live cute creatures Bush is studying laid eggs about a year ago. There’s no telling when they’ll hatch, but she can’t wait.
“I want to see what these baby octopuses look like,” Bush said. Because the only thing cuter than the nameless pink octopus is probably its babies.
Bush said she still hasn’t decided to name it adorabalis, but even if she did, it wouldn’t be that outlandish.
Other species have been crowned adorable enough too, such as the white-crested coquette (Lophornis adorabilis), a hummingbird with elegant neck plumes.
