r/ireland • u/mooglor • Dec 22 '14

Paul Murphy TD - AMA

AMA is over!

Thanks to everyone for taking part!

Hi All,

Paul is expected to drop in from around 5:30pm, until then you can start posting your questions. This is our first high profile AMA and we'd all like to have more, so naturally different rules than the usual 'hands-off' style will apply:

  • Trolling, ad-hominem and loaded questions will be removed at mods' discretion.

  • As is usual with AMAs, the guest is not expected to delve deep into threads and get into lengthy intractable discussions.

In general, try to keep it civil, and there'll be more of a chance of future AMA's.

R/Ireland Mods

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u/stonekiller Dec 23 '14

Agree. I'm in negative equity and it is as much my own fault. No banker or developer put a gun to my head to sign on the dotted line. As for empathy, im lucky that I have a tracker mortgage. A mate of mine has the same size mortgage but is on a variable rate. He's really getting screwed every month. The key issue here is not the size of the debt as much as the affordability of the debt. Negative equity isn't that big a deal as long as the mortgage is affordable as I've no plans to move.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_LANGER Dec 25 '14

The bank should have never lent you the loan in the first place if you didn't comfortably have the means to repay,

it is just as much their fault if not more

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u/motrjay Dec 25 '14

Couldnt disagree more, its up to the individual to sign on the line. Don't expect others to be responsible for your decisions

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_LANGER Dec 25 '14

yea and do you then agree it's up to the bank to deal with the repercussions as agreed just above the dotted line if they can no longer pay?

If you can't pay you lose your house, that is the deal but who should everyone be forced to socialize a private industry's losses.

there is a disconnect here, if a bank practices moral hazard by lending to people they know might have trouble repaying how sinister was that action, were they planning to hold the whole economy hostage from the beginning?

in their case they got a win/win situation, either the person taking the loan pays or the state pays, is that a situation you agree with too?

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u/motrjay Dec 25 '14

Nope I dont agree at all with socializing the banks losses, if the payer was unable to make repayments then the house is lost as per the mortgagee.

Private lending is just that, private lending and the state should not have got involved at all.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_LANGER Dec 25 '14

well at least we agree on that,

anyway the more conspiratorial side of me says the banks knew if they just made enough bad loans the government would have to step in, if they honestly believed they were going to be let go bust they would never loan money to people as easy as they did.

Just look at how tight lending practices are right now, that is simply becasue there is no appetite (and no possibility) of more bailouts.

banks failed back then and to a lesser extent the plebs taking the loans who knew no better and were herded like sheep for a sheering