Irish Banks Turn to Prisoners Dilemma
by rrusczyk, Nov 20, 2010, 2:37 PM
In one of their last-ditch efforts to avert fiscal Armageddon, Anglo Irish Bank has turned to the prisoners dilemma. It has proposed to a certain class of bondholders that they vote on a package whereby those who vote yes for the package, if the package passes, get some significantly reduced amount while the people who don't vote yes (and those who don't vote, presumably because they don't know about it) get virtually nothing. It's an interesting shakedown that I'm betting the rest of Europe is watching closely. I view it mainly as a peculiar curiosity in the ongoing collapse of the EU, but maybe I'm just too pessimistic about their prospects of salvaging the mess they're in. But demographics are tough to overcome, which is one of many reasons I think America's decision to throttle immigration by restricting H1B visas (and other types of immigration) might come back to bite us.
February 2012
January 2012