Eating Their Young

During the week we heard rejoicing on the airwaves http://www.thejournal.ie/central-bank-mortgage-rules-2-3095784-Nov2016/

“It was announced this afternoon that a first-time buyer will now only need a deposit worth 10% of a property, regardless of its price. However, the 20% deposit rule will continue to apply to second-time and subsequent buyers.

The 3.5 times ceiling on the loan to income (LTI) ratio remains. Requirements for buy to let borrowers and the exemptions for negative equity mortgage borrowers from the measures also remain unchanged.”

Rejoicing continued with claims that the above rule would stimulate the construction sector to build more new builds thus rapidly dealing with the homelessness crisis.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is housing has become unaffordable for the average industrial wage and is quickly getting beyond the reach of young people in high paying jobs.

Provision for a large municipal building programme that will end the crisis has been avoided at all costs.

Instead media is filled with images of smiling Enda proclaiming a dynamic, progressive and wealthy economy with a solution to the housing crisis brought about by Simon Coveney. No solution and Kenny will disappear from the stage some say the sooner the better.

Teachers went on strike to protect young workers in their profession forced to take a large cut in their wages in spite of rising rents and property costs. Hospitals are at their wit’s end with numbers on hospital trolleys about to reach all time records if winter flu hits see statistics here http://health.gov.ie/statistics/ Our rivers are polluted with drinking water requiring massive investment http://www.epa.ie/water/wm/rivers/results/

There is massive propaganda in the media with attempts to manage public sector pay increases expected by the unions in the wake of Ireland  seeing  its return to prosperity. Most do not see this. Widespread efforts to smother increases in public sector pay follow along the lines of warnings that our continued prosperity is on a knife-edge and such demands could lead our economy to collapse again.

The implied accusation is that public sector pay increases led to our economic collapse in the first place not wanton speculation in the property market promoted by the 1% of speculators and banks abetted by government who stoked the property market to line their pockets at the expense of workers.

The ridiculous black is white mantra that increasing house prices would encourage builders to build more houses will soon be seen to be the deception it is. Developers and bankers will not build and lend into projects priced beyond what the market can afford to pay.

It’s possible our politicians are so deceived they themselves are the greatest victims of their own delusions. There is no fungible relationship between Simon Coveney’s basket of intents and policies to bring about the construction of the numbers of houses and the real world.

The real world is very simple though to have any insight into its true nature will bring a response that such views are facile, fatuous, facetious and fail to grasp the complexity and scale of the problems of the real world. Bernie Madoff used such arguments to scoff at his critics before he was sent to prison.

Construction of public housing needs to be done on a vast scale on a Municipal basis. The price of housing needs to be severely brought lower not higher vis-a-vis Simon Coveney’s policies.

This is not happening because a small dictatorial elite of FG/FF headed by the smiling wannabe dictator Enda Kenny continue to fan the flames of prosperity for the 1% against the 99%.

They do not want house prices to fall.

Present relaxation of rules will fan property crises in the attempt to continue the bubble they fear will pop because not enough young first time buyers can afford to raise the finance for Madoff property pyramid schemes.

They want rich investors in Irish property many of whom are TD’s with large rental property portfolio investments or vulture funds pricing out Irish buyers continue to make large profits from artificially induced shortages.

For them the agenda is to manipulate the media and public opinion to the view what is best for the banks and the 1% is best for all.

It isn’t.

 

till again…..