The Minnow Makes Good

Queue up. Barry O'Callaghan has promised to make good on his debts, including loans from Anglo-Irish Bank.

He says that he only "speculated what (he) could afford to lose", or rather, what he felt that you, the Irish taxpayer now in possession of Anglo-Irish Bank, could afford to wait in line for.

The man's not skint, not in the least. He still has great faith in EMPG, the enormous whale of a corporation that he created by leveraging debt until the lever proved too weak to lift all the weight.

If you're one of the job applicants hoping for a position in Dublin, take heart. All promised jobs, all 450 of them, will be realized. Riverdeep is going to grow as planned, in spite of the restructuring that must take place.

The question is, however, does EMPG's new majority stockholder plan on Riverdeep growing? Is John Paulson and his hedge fund as keen on Riverdeep as they seem to be on Houghton Mifflin Harcourt?

Tired of waiting for the debt to be repaid? Not sure that it ever will be paid? You might consider a trade with Mr. O'Callaghan, who owns both Bentley's Hotel in Dublin and Cliff House Hotel in Waterford. A couple of months stay, free of charge, might cover your losses and allow Mr. O'Callaghan to meet his obligation to you, while you enjoy posh surroundings and all the amenities.

While in Waterford, you could swim in the ocean and dream about a little minnow swallowing a big whale, risking only what it could afford to lose while losing sight of the other fish in the financial sea.