Call the fat lady: Ireland’s banking horror show must end now. Its four surviving banks require €24bn of new capital after Thursday’s stress test results. That brings the amount of public money poured down the drain since 2008 to €70bn – 45 per cent of gross domestic product. Ireland’s pension reserves will supply €17.5bn of the injection; the rest comes from its international bail-out. With equity investors already wiped out; the question is whether senior bondholders should share the burden. Regardless, the Irish know their banks will haunt them for a generation.
快叫胖婦人出來：愛爾蘭的銀行業驚悚秀必須馬上結束。周四的壓力測試結果顯示，該國4家幸存的銀行需要240億歐元的額外資金。這將使2008年以來被消耗掉的公眾資金數額達到700億歐元——占愛爾蘭國內生產總值(GDP)的45%。愛爾蘭的養老金儲備基金將提供此次注資中的175億歐元；剩下的將來自國際紓困計劃。問題是，在股權投資者已精疲力竭的情況下，優先債券持有人是否應承擔部分負擔。不管怎樣，愛爾蘭人知道，本國銀行將會在一代人的時間里困擾自己。