Dear Jim,

First Iceland, then Ukraine, Romania, Lithuania and now Ireland! The UK, France and Italy are not far behind!

Best,
Ciga Big Tatanka

Bailout for Bank of Ireland
Aine Coffey
November 23, 2008

THE Irish government has agreed to take part in a €3 billion (£2 billion) bailout of Bank of Ireland that will be led by private equity. The deal would be the first state aid for an Irish bank.

This week a number of private-equity groups will make proposals to BoI. A condition of the government cash injection will be that new investors are locked in for a set time to ensure they don’t try to sell quickly and make a big profit.

Names already linked with a potential investment include Cardinal Asset Management, an Irish investment firm, Sandler O’Neill, Texas Pacific Group and JC Flowers.

Ireland was one of the first countries to respond to the credit crisis with a guarantee for bank liabilities worth some €440 billion, but until now it has not bailed out or nationalised any banks, and they have not raised equity themselves.

More…

Jim,

Gold has held up remarkably well despite the fear and pessimism. Humans tend to fear that which they don’t understand. The enemy of fear is knowledge. If the dollar is indeed headed to 0.52, the USDX to gold ratio has a technical target of at least 0.015. This suggests a gold price north of $1650. Something you have suggested as a possibility more than once.

The public really has no idea.

Regards,
Eric