Take your pick. Either the top brass at the Department of Finance is engaged in a cynical exercise with a National Solidarity Bond that’s not really designed to work (so as to protect the banks from a loss of deposits) or they’re just completely cack-handed and incompetent with no earthly idea of what will work. The bond is remarkably similar to a hoary old dinosaur of the Life Industry that robbed early withdrawers blind to pass the goods on to the minority that lasted the course. The only difference is that it’s the Irish Government who’re lining up to mug you and, not some faceless British Life office. There are two ways your money will be stolen;

• If you bail out in any of the first four years you get a rotten 0.75% pa, stay for five full years it’s 2.65% pa, for seven its 3.57% pa and for ten years its 4.07% pa. Best results are after seven years. See what I mean by cack-handed. The Dept of Finance expects to screw anyone who bails out early. Financial history teaches us that that’s a huge minority of investors. If anyone else launched this product they’d be in the brig at the Financial Regulator.
• But you will also be inflation-mugged by the old wheeze of Governments flogging debt at a time of historically low interest rates and tiny levels of inflation. Mark the spot with an “X” because the next long term cycle will be characterised by high inflation from all the money created by Governments. That means you’ll get back a fraction of what your money is worth today, in 2020.

So just say no. If you really do want to support your country ask the next public sector union hothead to chill out and think again. Ask them to listen to Jack O’Connor the SIPTU President and not the clowns who’d prefer to ape striking Greek unions that are actively destroying any chance the Greeks have to save themselves from a catastrophic default. Now I don’t care much for Jack’s economics but I admire and respect the man. He is showing real leadership in a refreshing display of resilience, courage and sure-footedness by telling his members the truth - that striking may lead to a win but at an indescribably high price that alienates four sixths of the workforce and leads to a higher debt burden. Jack may not welcome my endorsement but he will welcome with yours.

You have to hand it to the banks – they’re as predictable as Somali pirates back out raiding again as soon as the coast is clear. The latest scam is an attempt by some banks who’d sold tracker mortgages with long term price guarantees, to entice or arm wrestle distressed borrowers into higher priced conventional mortgages with lousy offers.

The cheapest tracker deals in town before the bust were priced at 0.5% above the ECB base rate. Today that means paying 1.5% pa. Take a mortgage sold two years ago with a balance of €300,000, the total interest that would be paid at these rates over the next 28 years is €66,900. (Even where the price was 1% above the ECB base the total would be €91,100).

Now compare these to the new fatter margin mortgages that banks are now offering as replacements. These range from 2.6% pa to a whopping 4.1% pa which translates to interest costs of between €121,000 and a staggering €200,600 over the remainder of the mortgage.

And guess what these thieves are offering as lures? A lousy fifteen grand if you're lucky. Time for Mathew Elderfield to swing his guns around and stop this robbery of uninformed and vulnerable Irish borrowers by the banks that have them captive.