This Week on Bear radio: The message from Ireland is clear – debt write-downs must be avoid

The Irish bailout by European nations and the IMF is following the same pattern we’ve seen throughout the entire financial crisis. In this episode we discuss the fact that whether it is consumer mortgages or sovereign debt issues, the response has been the same over the last few years – do anything and everything to avoid making lenders take a loss. Banks will lower monthly mortgage payments for struggling borrowers for a year but actually tack the difference with what is actually owed to increase the over-all loan balance. Governments will bail-out corporations so that bond-holders don’t have to suffer the indignity of a loss. Who cares if the borrowers will re-default later down the road, just so long as no one has to recognize the loss in the here and now.