From PIIGS to Piggies: Three Irish Speculative Opportunities, Three Yield Ideas for the Week

Apparently, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow has been replaced by a big box full of IOUs and returned checks. Ireland has taken it on the chin like a peat farmer named “Paddy” in a pub brawl, financially speaking, that is. The EU, with the reluctant and somewhat disgusted Germans playing point guard, and the IMF have, again, cobbled together yet another bail-out plan to rescue a peripheral European economy in order to maintain confidence in the grand experiment known as “the Euro”. (Can you imagine the brainstorming sessions before its birth? “Hey guys! I got a great idea! Let’s have a common currency without a central bank amongst different sovereign countries that have spent most of recorded history at war with each other!”).It goes without saying that the broad Irish equity market (ISEQ Overall) has been beaten down pretty good. YTD it’s given up around 16% and is down nearly 1000 points from an April peak of about 3500. Wouldn’t touch Irish stocks with a ten foot shillelagh? Conventional wisdom would say so. However, if you subscribe to the Baron Rothschild axiom of “buy when you hear the cannon. Sell when you hear the violins”, it may be time to put in your earplugs, buckle the chinstrap on your helmet and do some triage amongst the wounded.... Read more