Another Horror Story from Zombie Ireland

Here’s a snapshot of life in 21st century Ireland: Vincent Campbell sold a house and 4.75 acres of land outside Limerick City for a nifty three million euros in 2005. He’s just bought the same property back for 215,000 euros.

Meanwhile, the Irish Independent has been having a good week. The paper has revealed how Anglo Irish Bank*, amidst stiff competition perhaps the worst bank in europe, knowingly stiffed the Irish taxpayer for billions by playing the Irish Central Bank like a salmon. As the Indo reported, taped conversations between senior Anglo executives reveal a fresh part of the true story behind the collapse of a bank that went a long way towards sinking the whole country:

At a meeting in mid-September 2008, Anglo executives including the CEO David Drumm told Central Bank officials that Anglo required emergency liquidity funding while at the same time playing down the true extent of their exposure.

The recorded phone conversation reveals that the hidden strategy was to panic the Central Bank into loaning them an initial €7bn, which they believed was “big enough to be important” but would not seem too high for the taxpayer.