Coppola Comment

My Forbes post on the threat to democracy in the EU touched a nerve. Well, several nerves, actually. Some people regarded my invocation of the Prague Spring as insulting to the people who suffered under Soviet oppression: others objected to my comparison of the benevolent EU with the evil USSR: and a few complained that I had presented the Syriza government as "martyrs", when they are nothing of the kind. And lots of Portuguese called me out for misrepresenting how their parliamentary democracy works. First, let me deal with the Portuguese. I'm not going to discuss the Portuguese semi-presidential political system, here or anywhere else. I don't claim to be an expert on the political system of my own country, let alone someone else's. In the Forbes post, I was careful not to suggest that the Portuguese President had exceeded his constitutional authority. I criticised his words, not his actions. Unfortunately it appears that my post, like others on similar

If you thought what I described in my recent pieces on Bulgaria was corruption, just read this .....it makes Bulgaria look like the Garden of Eden. Honestly, I was shocked. What was supposed to be a post about the failure of the Angolan arm of BES turned into a post about the systematic looting of Angola by its corrupt political elite. And I've only scratched the surface, really. Horrifying. I am grateful to Nicholas Shaxson for pointing me in the direction of this piece of analysis. Related reading The BES story so far: Banco Espirito Santo: a Portuguese disaster, not a European crisis How to rip off a bank, Espirito Santo style How to rip off a country, Espirito Santo style Plus, for comparison purposes, the Bulgaria sequence: What on earth is going on in Bulgaria? The curious case of the Bulgarian bank runs The Bulgarian Game of Thrones The EU should beware of Russian interest in Balkan banks Oh, and if' you'd like some more Angolan and Portuguese horr

In my  latest post at Pieria , I took a hard look at the half-year results of Portugal's distressed Banco Espirito Santo. They are pretty grim reading. No, they are worse than that. They read like an instruction manual for how to rip off a bank. It's no surprise that the losses are appalling. But now it seems that Banco Espirito Santo is to be bailed out by the Portuguese government. The rescue plan was announced by the Bank of Portugal late in the evening of 3rd August, and the European Commission confirmed that it complied with existing state aid rules. The Bank of Portugal's statement describes the dramatic events that led to the decision to rescue BES (my emphasis): On July 30, Banco Espírito Santo, SA announced losses which greatly exceeded those anticipated from the information previously provided by Banco Espírito Santo, SA and its external auditors. Results released on July 30 reflect management acts seriously prejudicial to the interests of Banco Espírito

There is absolutely nothing holy or spiritual about Portugal's Espirito Santo Group. It's a complex, opaque structure much of which is incorporated in a tax haven and part of which is suspected of fraud. It's impossible to regulate and some of the funding relationships are distinctly odd. And it includes a bank. Moral hazard de luxe.  But haven't we seen this before? Oh yes. Read about it  here .