Prof. Karl Whelan gives us a simple, useful suggestion on NAMA's implementation:
Appoint a cross-party board to approve NAMA’s pricing of assets being transferred.
Of course opposition parties would be happy to join, but the key to making it work would be transparency around the details of NAMA's pricing mechanism, which we'd get more readily if the mechanism weren't a closed shop between the government and its advisors. Can't wait for the comments on this one.
Sounds like a good start to me. Anything that builds transparency/checks & controls into the process has to be good. It concerns me that another bank (HSBC) is so heavily involved in it. Do we think these guys don't play golf together?
Joseph, thanks for the comment. It is indeed very concerning that so much regulatory capture is apparently taking place---one can see the effects in the stock prices of the main banks at the moment, crawling up as more news of the potential haircuts hit: http://www93.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Bank+of+Ireland+and+AIB.
Do you know what the role of HSBC is going to be?