NAMA & Mr. Lenihan

Famous last words.  I don’t normally do this, but this is a very important issue for the country.  Today, 30th of March, the NAMA discounts were announced by the government.  It’s been an interesting day and it looks, at least on the surfacce that the government is being a little bit more realistic in valuing the bad loans that NAMA are going to take on.  A fact for which they are being critisied for as reports indicate that the various bodies are in shock at the high rate of discount applied.  I can only say that I’m very, very glad.  Personally I think they could have probably gone a bit further, but I suppose you could say that the aim of NAMA is to get money back in to the banks, so they couldn’t be doing the dog on the discounting.  However, I think Mr. Lenihan may have gone a tad too far this evening.  He said that Nama and the regulator had been told to be very conservative and cautious.  “All the downside risk has been taken into account,” he contended.  Famous last words.