Over 100 years ago, JM Synge described the gombeen man as follows, “groggy patriot/publican/ge-neral shopman who is married to the priest’s half-sister and is a second cousin once removed of the dispensary doctor … the type that is running the United Irish League anti-grazier campaign, while at the same time they are swindling the people themselves in a dozen ways and buying back their holdings and packing off whole families to America”.
When we see the closing of businesses and the emigration of our neighbours and relations while deeply entrenched “insiders” disguise national robbery in the emotional language of patriotism, it is not difficult to conclude that the gombeen man never went away.
Even in terms of the detail of Synge’s gombeen man buying up the peasants’ holdings, it is obvious that, for NAMA to work, the State will have to trade land cheaply at some stage in the future. And guess what? To get the market going it will have to sell stuff at way below the price NAMA bought the stuff for in the first place — that’s how to generate liquidity. So like Synge’s gombeen, the very people who caused the mess will be given the opportunity to buy the stuff back cheaply in a few years’ time.
Let us examine the bailout of Anglo/NAMA through the prism of the late 19th century and early 20th century politics of rural Ireland — where most of us came from. It is easy to see the direct link between the ways and wiles of the post-Famine gombeen man and the instruments and choices made by this Government.
We see the return of the gombeen tactic of saying one thing and doing quite another, terrifying the people into believing that we have no option but at the same time, setting aside €2.5bn in fees to make sure the gombeen’s pockets are lined with silk despite the people’s misery.
We are seeing not the return of the traditional gombeen but the emergence of his direct descendent, the neo-gombeen, who is a traditional gombeen hiding behind the international lexicon of high finance. The neo-gombeen thinks that if he uses the language of the ‘Financial Times’, as opposed to the ‘Skibbereen Eagle’, he can get away with it.
Given the pliant nature of the national reaction to the Anglo/NAMA business, the neo-gombeen’s plan might seem to be working. But, in reality, it matters not a jot how many references the neo-gombeen makes to “bond market spreads”, “basis points” or “rating agencies”, the game is the same; the players are probably better dressed but that’s about it.
In Parnell’s Ireland, the traditional gombeen man thrived by lending money to the peasants, charging huge interest rates and when the peasant couldn’t pay, the gombeen man repossessed his neighbour’s holding and moved on to the next debtor.
A recurring feature of the post-Famine gombeen man was his willingness to put his fellow Irishmen in debt in order to make a few quid for himself and, more significantly, to please his foreign bankers who lent him the cash in the first place. Does this sound familiar?
Today we see a repetition of this pattern. The middlemen in Ireland who will make money from the bank bailout are salivating at the fees they are about to earn, and scaremongering the rest of us into believing that “there is no alternative”. But of course there is.
Letting Anglo go bust is what free market capitalism is all about. Failure is punished and success rewarded — these are the rules of free-market capitalism. It is about risk and return and a corporate default in Anglo wouldn’t make one bit of difference to Ireland’s creditworthiness. It wouldn’t affect our reputation because we have no reputation to defend. In fact, a default in Anglo would signal that this is a proper capitalist country, not a “gombeen capitalist” country.
But even if neo-gombeenism wins, the victory will prove to be short-lived — a sort of smart arse victory which has no substance. The reason is simple: the world has moved on. The rest of the world is getting on with creating wealth from new and viable businesses. This wealth generation is in direct contrast to the favoured method of the gombeen man, which is stroking a few quid from wealth that has already been generated. This is why it is so crucial for neo-gombeenism that the Irish status quo and land/credit/banking oligarchy remains intact.
Gombeen capitalism is never about generating new, real wealth from innovation, hard work and trade. It is about taking a cut. Central to it is land and property. If the gombeen can engineer an increase in the perceived value of land, then he can get a small slice and that prevents him having to go to work or trade.
Keep this in mind and think about the core contradiction at the heart of this Government’s economic policy. On the one hand we have the deep-rooted gombeen capitalism of Anglo/ NAMA and on the other we have the ambitious, but achievable, “smart economy” idea.
The Anglo/NAMA strategy encourages what is called “rent seeking” in economics. This is where the professions see something that they can milk fees out of, and rather than create proper business, they trouser fees which ultimately come from the general public’s taxes.
Therefore lawyers, accountants, stockbrokers, estate agents, valuers, senior civil servants and politicians are all behind the NAMA/Anglo stroke. As long as this structure stays in place, it replicates itself. It makes sense for the mammies of Ireland to urge their smart kids to join the professions, why wouldn’t they?
Now contrast this with the smart economy idea, which — at its purest — is an effort to create a Silicon Valley here, where capital and brains come together to build a new economy.
But this takes money. The Government has said it will set aside €500m to help create this economy. This sounds like a lot — until you think that it is putting 44 times more money into the Anglo black hole. So it is spending 44 times more to keep one fetid bank from the gombeen economy afloat than it is in trying to make this economy work properly.
Now, with the new education-based innovative economy in mind, think about how much of a competitive kick we could get for the money we are wasting in Anglo. There are 22 universities and third-level institutes in the country so they could get a billion each for a start. And they could get a thousand new professors working on research projects for 10 years. Now imagine going out and telling the world about that and see how much capital and expertise would flow in.
Or maybe we’d like to spend the Anglo swag on students. There are 146,000 full-time students here at the moment. So we could spend €38,000 per student; imagine what sort of education that would give them. Or what about spending some on early intervention in children’s education? Or what about the new Science Gallery in Trinity? It cost €100m. We could build 223 of them all around the country. That’s a possible future.
So who is going to win — Old Ireland or New Ireland?
David, I’ve been reading your posts for some time now and while you make a great deal of sense, they are short on solutions. It is clear we need a change in government but how is this achieved and who is going to take their place? It’s clear to the dogs on the street that people have no faith in Enda Kenny as a leader and it’s unfortunate that he will be the last to realise this after it’s too late. What’s worrying, is that in desperation and as a protest, people will vote for the likes of Sinn Fein… Read more »
Without knowing the full extent of the secured and unsecured bond holders it would seem unlikely that we could simply repudiate the loans from the ECB that are keeping the Anglo barge afloat. Then the depositors simply must be returned. That leaves how much? Now getting back to the average taxpayer who defaults on their debt and ask them to find a lender who will advance them a loan if indeed they have defaulted elsewhere and you get the picture that it may not be as simple as you make it sound. Long term this event may be forgiven with… Read more »
Hi all, I decided to get off the fence and start commenting. First up I left Ireland a few months back so it looks like I am watching a slow moving wreck from afar. A lot of expats here are shocked at the stories from home and the treatment the public are getting from Dail Eireann. I saw seen people in tears with having to leave Australia and return to the dole in Ireland. Has anybody done any research into how this Government can be stopped? Is there any bit of law that be used to halt this NAMA/Anglo debacle?… Read more »
But as always, how on earth do we change this once and for all? It is inherent in Irish society. Gombeen-ism is woven like a fabric into us. The lovable rogue who has eaten away at the root of our chances of long term growth and stability must be exposed at every turn.
We almost have to stop being Irish.
We have to start to BE IRISH again! 1. The public has to get up it’s feet, wipe away tears and fears of change, and demand the current establishment to step down. 2. Anglo has to be closed, all debts repudiated, like yesterday! Deposit holders? Excuse me, those who still hold deposits in this bank do this for very specific reasons. Would you keep your account there? To those who might still have deposits there and never thought about it. Close all accounts and get your money out there. 3. The whole NAMA concept has to be challenged on all… Read more »
http://irishsovereignty.wordpress.com/ Peoples’ mindset needs to change. arselicking politicians for a piece of the pie can only work for so many for so long. We need to make new pie. join the irish sovereignty movement http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Irish-Sovereignty-Party/114571111886400 and put ethical people in office. But then you have to accept that power corrupts and keep these new crowd in check.
@David McWilliams
NICE! LOL
…..Over 100 years ago, JM Synge described the gombeen man as follows, “groggy patriot/publican/ge-neral shopman who is married to the priest’s half-sister and is a second cousin once removed of the dispensary doctor … the type that is running the United Irish League anti-grazier campaign….
This is stuff for a Christy Moore ballade!
There is nothing ‘ Neo ‘ about them . They were and continue to be over fed , alcoholic , red faced , corrupt goons .
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Irish-Sovereignty-Party/114571111886400?ref=nf
see what your political ideology are and compare to the current gombeens. We still have masses of people who live for political favour. No change until this mindset changes
Friendly reminder:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/close-anglo-irish-bank-now–no-bank-guarantee-extension
Good investors’ money is better off not spent on this crucked, little backwater. I can’t wait to get out of here. Ireland is overrated and we are up our own arses. The more cash we’d be given, the more opportunity we’d be given to mismanage it.
@Georg R. Baumann
That petition has too many information fields to fill in, it works against itself. People won’t sign it.
“setting aside €2.5bn in fees to make sure the gombeen’s pockets are lined with silk despite the people’s misery” – isn’t it the case that NAMA’s operating expenses for 10 years (€2.4bn) are in the main rechargeable to the financial institutions and isn’t it rumoured to be the case that thus far NAMA has made a “profit” of €25m on its due dligence costs because it only incurred €100m and its contracts with the banks allow NAMA to recharge a minimum of €125m? Mistakes have been made on an epic scale (ours is the 3rd most expensive bail-out in the… Read more »
Tryed to sign the petition however their are too many fields. If we could organise a book in the city centre (hard Copy) any comments anyone?
Great article. I see Fintan O Toole in a similar vein http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0406/1224267752939.html We are turning into a feudal society of serfs and gombeen vassals. We’re going backward instead of forward. Maybe a march from Parnell Square to Anglo where we dress up with this theme in mind. We are now after all the world’s Anglo Theme Park. It’s all rather embarrassing when we envy what we previously regarded as third world, Latin American countries such as Uruguay responding to financial crises better than we do. We are now the Ponzi Banana Republic of Europe. Anglo Nama Scamarama Inc. Yeats “no… Read more »
Yes David the G-man has always been with us and he always will be. Why should these guys learn an honest trade and make a living from it when they don’t have to? They don’t need to use their brains to make anything, invent anything or do any real work. They are in their places due to that old Irish trait which rewards tribal allegiance and they are literally unmovable from their currently enrenched positions because the Irish people have given them the power to act as they like. During the famine G-men acquired a lot of land and even… Read more »
I just finished listening to the last podcast in a series from Peter Day’s Business report on BBC Radio4. He visited a country that has decided to build a smart economy, by targeting education and business and by wiring up the country with high-speed fibre interconnects and intra-connects. The country? Rwanda. You are right, the world has moved on and is moving on. This smart economy stuff is great and all but it requires a determined and sustained effort. And we are competing with contries that are more determined than we are. I’ve always been puzzled by the attitude the… Read more »
@ The eye and SM
I just watched a friend signing it, took 30 seconds.
However, thanks for your feeback, and here is a another thought.
People could start sending postcards to the outgoing Minister for Finance, demanding closure immediate of Anglo and no banking guarantee extension. Flooding them with postcards. — Just a thought….
I cannot see how the mysterious bondholders could possibly want to engineer a situation where all their investment is sinking in a deflationary quicksand. The whole thing seems irrational. The only possible way of being paid back for the money already invested in ‘old Ireland’ is to generate a thriving, vibrant ‘new Ireland’. This reflation will probably only happen as part of a general rapprochement/realigment of debtor/creditor nations worldwide. Until then, the tired nostrums of ‘neo-Gombeenism’ will surrpetitiously entrain and enslave the ‘patriotic’ to go against the mid and long term interests of their homeland. This is a great article… Read more »
To be serious… The point of the gombeens buying up the peasants holdings is well worth repeating; there will be a new landlord class in Ireland after the next decade works its magic. I’ve warned about this here 2 years ago; I thought it would be corporate but either way it’s looking more and more likely. And now to be flippant… Sure maybe the mammies of Ireland are right; there’s very little money to be made in tilting at windmills. Plenty of brave idealistic adventurous young lads headed off to fight for the defense of small nations in 1914 and… Read more »
How to avoid the Gombeen? 1. Avoid going to the pub / niteclub. This is a huge challenge for Irish people. Meet up in your friends’ places. 2. Avoid buying a car in Ireland. Import one. 3. Avoid eating out. Prepare your own meals. 4. Avoid gym membership. Cycle on the road, Jog in the park, Walk on beaches / in woods. 5. Surf on your Credit Cards. Transferring Balances from one card to another on a very low APR %. Haggling helps. 6. Avoid Labels (Clothing). Plenty of good non-labelled clothing out there. 7. Avoid Greedy Property Landlords. Shop… Read more »
Live off nature in a forest avoiding all contact with Irish people forever .
Enough is enough, if we want change we need action, enough talk. But will we have the balls to do it, unfortunately the answer is no.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0407/thailand.html
I have been reading and listening to David and many other commentators over the past eighteen months and what has changed?……..absolutely noting as far as I can see. We still have a Government which is making reckless decisions that will have the most devastating effect on Ireland’s economy since the Act of Union of 1800. We have not had any opportunity to vote for or against these decisions and we continue to allow mis-truths to be pedaled by chancers and gombeen men/women whether when answering questions in the Dail or on various radio stations. As the likes of this forum… Read more »
Again, Hi All, I log in to get my fix of the latest of David’s articles, and again it is depressing to have the cold facts of what is now happening to our country so eloquently presented. I suppose it is a stage one must go through but where are we heading? A Group of politicians now want to interfere with the Financial Regulator Matthew Elderfield as he at last tries to hold the Quinn Group to normal financial oblegliations and corporate governance. Will we now see this kind of interference from local Gombeens in the future ? Because if… Read more »
The reason why nothing has changed is that there is no solution to our problems, other than to work our way back to prosperity over a long number of years. We blew it. (And I mean “we” … it is useless to point out that some of us contributed nothing to the screw-up). It’s as simple as that. Sure, there are some heads that should roll, and measures that should be put in place to ensure that we don’t repeat past mistakes. But there are no silver bullets. We’re going to have to suck it up, plain as that. This… Read more »
The problem is that we do not have the real figures
The Department of finance are constantly giving us different figures
We cannot thrust Lenihan or the Banks
They will not come clean, and will continue to drip feed us until its too late do anything else
In order to complete their mission and that is to protect their buddies and saddle the taxpayers of this country with their debts.
P.S .I do not accept your concern of the “WE” in your posting. (ps200306)
http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2010/4/7_Andrew_Maguire_%26_Adrian_Douglas.html
NAMA is small pickings. Load up on silver, get as much as you can.
I feel David is flogging a dead horse here, NAMA has already happened nothing can stop it. Nobody likes it but it is a nescessary evil. The only people to profit are the employees of NAMA are these the gombeen men ? To say that the NAMA money can be spent elsewhere is a nonsense. It is the EU that is driving this only for them B Lenihan would not have made the statement to the Dail last week. NAMA finance comes from the ECB at 1.5% this is backed by mainly property assets. These assets will be sold over… Read more »
It is sickening what is still going on in this country – see link below. I really believe the worse is yet to come. Joe public is going to boil over some day soon – good thing guns are hard to come by in this country or we would soon have a shooting range on Kildare street with the Dail as a target practise.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/elite-civil-servants-we-deserve-a-pay-rise-2127572.html
Where are all of our concerned celebrities and concerned social leaders vis a vis the rape, pillage and hollowing-out destabilisation of our State? http://www.politics.ie/lisbon-treaty/71310-celeb-group-campaign-lisbon-2-we-belong.html They were well able to tow party lines that were fed to them when it came to Lisbon 2?? Where are the mighty intellects and cultural warriors of Ireland now? Why aren’t Sinead O’Connor and some of these other insider yoyos voicing their extreme unease at what is essentially a greater blow to the Irish nation than the proposed Haiti-like annuities of the retreating British in De Valera’s time? If Megan Fox can ably voice her… Read more »
“The most dangerous man,to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself..almost inevitably,he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable”
H.L Menken American journalist among other things 1880-1956
“We open today with the rise of the just default camp, in the world of sovereign debt. Since much of the debt was accumulated corruptly, between brain dead or venal politicians on the take, and great vampire squids aiding and abetting a crime on the public, just default, and let the great vampire squids take the heat and most of the loss. Kings and countries have been doing it since time immemorial, this time it’s not different after all. Why pay off the money lenders 100 pennies on the Pound, and at 6-7% interest in the case of the tax… Read more »
Well RuairÃ, this is what David is at in the Abbey and good luck to him. I think we see more of it. I dream of a Pat Kenny or Olivlia O’Leary starting to break ranks as well. But their commercial appeal outside of RTE may cause them to reconsider…oh well. The problem is well stated in earlier comments. The facts are not all there to draw firm conclusions. The most you can do is make comparatitive references. Absolute truths on who is responsible for what seem unavailable. Welcome to fudge. And shure….as my friends say, stop reading all that… Read more »
Listening to the News this evening, I can hear the drums of public service strike action starting to beat.
However, I would ask all public servants not to waste any all-out strike action, as you did last year. Please ensure that your Union leaders include a demand for the END OF THE ANGLO/NATIONWIDE BAILOUTS as the next non-negotiable point of departure.
OK,
What about a get-together?
Why? To find out if there’s anything we can do collectively besides posting on our host’s site.
Where? I suggest a location (Hotel / Pub / Shopping Center) in or near Naas, Co Kildare, the first town in Ireland to be bypassed. Close to Dublin, served by the M7, the route to Limerick & part-route to Cork, also served by the M9, the route to Waterford. Also, it is the gateway to Ghost Estates Territory.
When? From Saturday Lunchtime to 6pm ish……depending on turnout and vibes. Maybe this Saturday coming?????
All suggestions welcome.
Finally the Gombeen element in our society are getting commentary, after screwing the young people of Ireland for the last thirty years and more. The Gombeenism mentality is exactly as David says it is – a mentality where the gombeen is trying to continually enlarge his cut. And this means price fixing and market regulation – Irish style….Create loads of hype about demand and supply, obliviate the truth and make above normal profits. Gombeens. Politicians who took brown envelopes. Their pals and relatives who took state jobs, or jobs in semi-state organizations. The business man who filled the brown envelope… Read more »
“He who goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.” Not only does borrowing bring added care for the property of other people — it destroys self-reliance in the man himself. In the light of good judgment, lack of funds may well serve as an indication to the individual that something is wrong in the course he pursues, that the step he plans is either false or premature, or that he is going in debt, not for need but to satisfy a personal desire. Perhaps wisdom would say that unless all the principal factors in a contemplated move are present, one would better wait,… Read more »
A GLOBAL PROBLEM BEYOND OUR CONTROL Taoiseach and former Minister for Finance on driving the Irish Economy on to the rocks Sorry, Judge, but it wasn’t my fault. You see, I found myself tailgating this juggernaut on the international highway. I needed to see the way ahead, so the missus wiped me glasses. I realised we had to move forward, so, I put the foot down. Suddenly, the juggernaut went out of control. The driver failed to give adequate warning of his intention which was very inconsiderate when you consider his speed of 100 mph. I was knocked off course… Read more »
Brian Lenihan said on Sunday that House prices have bottomed. He provided words of reassurance once on bank shares also, and we know how that ended up. He will not be latest to hear more analysis of government projections by Prof Lucey of the TCD Economics department. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0407/breaking9.html?via=mr Prof Lucey (who has more economy saturated brain cells in his big toe than the entire ‘drinks cabinet) reckons that house prices are going to fall further. Based on track records, we can expect Prof Lucey to be more correct. Put it this way, apart from borrowing, where is the money going… Read more »
LTEV is so new and so PREPOSTEROUS that it doesn’t come up as a result in http://acronyms.silmaril.ie/cgi-bin/uncgi/acronyms; the Internet Acronym Server………
Sorry, Colin in Exile, I can’t do Saturdays.
What anyone wishing to assault a government policy should research is how the Jewish movement in USA perform their activism / lobbying function. They have a merciless letter-writing and phonecalling campaign machine that tears into representatives.
In 1998 I drove once in Donegal for twenty minutes, and did not see a house, and animal. I seen two cars. And it was a secondary route. Not a minor road. But look, that is Donegal. Donegal had witnessed a century and a half of population decline, economic misery and so on at that stage. I remember in 1999 heading West on the Sligo line, and before Mullingar, I could look out the window for fifteen maybe twenty minutes, and see nothing except cattle and sheep, and space. However did the media and the gombeens who were paying the… Read more »
Hi all This article from David seems to have provoked a strong response, and it relates to a question have been grappling with a question in my mind over the last few weeks. Basically this whole financial disaster, NAMA, property pyramid scheme has done an unmitigated amount of damage to the country, social budgets are being cut while billions — and nobody seems to know exactly how much — is poured into banks. Most of you would agree that this is a gravely bad decision for the future of the country My question is: the people that are responsible for… Read more »
David.
I read an interesting article other day, from USA.
It asked, why all this mediocrity running everything.
It concluded, anyone of merit are too busy going to analysis to be able to have the time to do the other stuff.
I’m beginning to think it could be very close to the truth.
The people who are alive and human are all trying to work around the gombeens / zombies who’ve over run the system.
Folks,
go to cnn.com, subprime lending hrg, live!
The greatest joke of the last twenty years was the love affair with false sophistication. It propelled economic idiots into orbit as the leaders in behaviour and attitudes. I remember the first wet summer, 2007, there was a rush on in the hardware shops to buy ‘Barbeque grills’. It was all the rage. And it was a case, of ‘this is like I had in the year out in Australia’. I mean it became a mark of sophistication. Buying a barbie unit, and putting on expensive steak, and singe-burning the meat to become tasteless. And sitting back with your mates,… Read more »
Anybody see this new crap from our new minister? She should be sent to work on a farm full time. Bonus points me arse! Why not just make hons maths a pre-requisite for courses that need it, fair enough, and then make places available on the relevant courses. Bonus points will give anybody who does hons maths a leg up regardless of their course choice which is unfair on those who don’t. These Gael-goers give me a pain in the face too with their bonus marks for answering exams through Irish. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0407/breaking51.html
‘Gombeen Capitalism’ is remarkably similar to ‘Ponzi Republic.’
I’d say Gombeen Capitalism generates POnzi economies and pays for POnzi politics.
David, every article you write is music to honest ears.
Joe Higgins our only true blue Euro MP organized a few of his faithful followers to demonstrate outside Anglo Irish Bank last week.
Their protest got 2 seconds on RTE.
Says it all.!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-UmyZD_G2U
Am I correct in saying that most of the posters here are male? I just had a look at the comments to FINTAN O’TOOLEÂ and I’d say 80% are male posters. I wonder why?