Tuesday 18 November 2008

Ireland - what is going on?

Someone left this intriguing comment on one of my posts yesterday:

Alice can you shed any light on what is going on in the Irish Republic?

Last week beef prices collapsed. This week I am unable to sell finnished beasts at all.

Last week a police strike in Donegal was narrowly averted when the local authority agreed to stump up accrued overtime.

Bank of Ireland shares are trading for under 90 cents from a one time high of 18 Euro. It looks like the Government's bluff is about to be called...

Rumour has it that the caszhpoint sustem will stop within 3 days

Can you shed any light?


Is there anyone out there who can help?

9 comments:

Ben Bittrolff said...

I don't know about Ireland, but in Canada pork prices just did a nose dive.

Apparently the big buyers out of Russia aren't buying at all anymore as the Ruble goes into free fall. A lot of Canadian pork is exported to Russia. Who knew?

Canadian beef prices just broke down as well.

So perhaps it's not just Ireland.

Anonymous said...

Love your blog, Ben....

Anonymous said...

I did a bit of googling and found this:

http://www.farmersjournal.ie/2008/1115/news/currentedition/

Sounds like expoitation of unsure times rather than genuine deflation. The problem is it sends the wrong signals and the wrong people out of business. It will only make prices worse in the long run.

Anonymous said...

Had a look at dublin house prices recently?

Edward Harrison said...

Alice,

This is a great pos because there has been a shed load of talk about small countries with outsized banking systems following in the footsteps of Iceland. The usual suspects come out including Switzerland. But, Ireland is another one.

Basically, the point of your point about calling the country's bluff is what this is all about:

The government of a small nation cannot bail out its financial sector if that sector is oo large. This is true for Denmark and it is true for the UK as well. Read these posts to see what I mean:

Credit Writedowns
Bronte Capital
VoxEU


I will link back here with a new post.

Great one, Alice.

mike said...

Really odd that you mention 'cash points' in the post. It would be a 'nightmare' if there was mass public panic/unrest due to people being unable to withdraw their money from atm's. This would be a sure sign of very serious financial problems.

In the current climate I believe those offering the highest interest rates are at risk. Those people who recently sent their money to the likes of Anglo Irish bank may have made a huge mistake. Try to stick to UK institutions who have lots of assets (e.g Tesco banking) is my advice.

Witold Ferens said...

beef prices are falling in US, too.
I think the producers are reducing the herd size. Look at the prices of corn and wheat, and you will understand why.

Anonymous said...

O n a lighter note ATMs (the real ones ,not your house!)in Ireland are known as "Drink Link"

Anonymous said...

Sounds as thought the Irish banks are doing better than the U.K.

The Chairman of Meryl Lynch U.K. said that he suspected that if there was complete transparency and unravelling, the U.K. would be in at least as bad a position as Iceland!

RBS shares now put their worth at £7bn after recent rights iussue of £12bn!

Barclays is virtually worthless