Results 1,981-2,000 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Reporting profits.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Could he explain very briefly to our people how that is possible? How do they make such profits in such a short time?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: How does that work for the person taking the loan, who is paying higher interest rates?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Okay. I would like to ask Professor Black a question about Ireland. According to the Nyberg report, lending by the six banks covered by the bank guarantee of 2008 increased "from a stock of €120 billion in 2000 to almost €400 billion by 2007". The report points out that "the three years ending in 2006 marked the highest sub-period of sustained growth, with loan assets more...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: I will move on. As part of a discussion on the Nyberg report, Professor Black said that the Irish economic environment before 2007 was not benign and that it was the largest bubble proportional to GDP of any developed nation. He further said that what happened in the banks was exceptionally profitable to the senior officers leading the banks.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Professor Black is probably familiar with Professor David Harvey. I do not have time to quote from his book, The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism, but he referred to senior hedge fund managers getting bonuses of as much as $1 billion a year as a result of their activities in the financial markets. One can understand how that extreme level, as many people would regard it, of...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Mr. Nyberg ascribed most of the problems to bad judgment rather than bad faith. Without going into specific cases, at which point does Professor Black think our people should judge the activities of the bankers as failed banks crossing the line from bad judgment to bad faith? This is my last question. In view of the type of excesses we have seen and that Professor Black has devoted his...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: I thank Professor Black.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Does that mean that when, in a court of law, there are convictions against senior financiers for very serious financial crimes, fines should be personally levied against their wealth and-or they should go to jail? Does the professor say that is more a deterrence than the massive fines that we have routinely heard get paid, from the banks, by shareholders to the US Government?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: The professor said that 40% of total corporate profit globally-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: --- comes from the financial sector. If I am correct, the professor referred to the financial sector as a parasite.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Yes, because a parasite sucks the lifeblood of its usually unwilling host. The international financial press has reported that major private corporations in Europe have about €3 trillion, or $3.5 trillion, sitting in banks and presumably in other financial institutions, which they will not invest, while 25 million people are unemployed. Looking into the future, what could or should...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: On the minimum regulation laid down by the European Union, Mr. Nava states that member states "typically did not resort to overly restrictive rules". He also notes:The degree of flexibility previously granted to member states and national supervisors, as mentioned above, had led to divergent transposition of EU rules into national law. This created opportunities for regulatory arbitrage...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: I am citing page 3 of Mr. Nava's opening statement.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Will Mr. Nava briefly explain, in the English language, what the term "regulatory arbitrage" means?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: In one definition the term "regulatory arbitrage" is described as a practice whereby firms capitalise on loopholes in regulatory systems in order to circumvent unfavourable regulation. Did that happen?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Would very favourable taxation policy on the financial industry, for example, a much lower rate of taxation, qualify as regulatory arbitrage?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (5 Feb 2015)

Joe Higgins: Are regulatory and fiscal arbitrage related?