What a week. Another rumour that seemed hard to believe a few months ago is now confirmed as true. Bank of Scotland (BoSI) is set to be the next bank to liquidate its position in Ireland with its loan book in shreds. Questions keep running through my mind. Where does all this end? Does it ever end for me? Where is the hope and does Ireland have to become a virtually "bank-less" economy? Brian Lenihan's short comment about BoSI leaving clearly indicates that he does not care about a major business lender leaving the country and liquidating its position. His only concern seems to be that he did not have to foot the bill. I think he is missing a key point here. As we accelerate the de-leveraging and liquidation of the business economy, asset values will continue to collapse, and the shock-waves of this will continue to pull new businesses into the recession, increasing unemployment, and further destabilising the government finances. It's not looking good for the near-term.

The liquidation of large property portfolios is now the stated business plan for a major part of the banking system, through both Nama and BoSI. This is an unprecedented amount of selling pressure into a market with very little buyer demand, and no underlying stability. Further asset price deflation is now a racing certainty. Again, I have to scratch my head and ask myself, what does this mean? Is there a future here within a timescale that I can work with? I have to believe that there is and I have to push on through this relentless headwind believing that I can participate in this future. What is the alternative anyway? Give up? Let me try and pick over the positives, to get me through this uphill climb which seems endless from where I stand today.

The natural conclusion of this systemic de-leveraging is that assets will be transferred to new owners carrying far lower levers of debt. The debt write-offs that occur in this transfer will be borne by the governments of both Ireland and the UK through their banks. The good news is that the stock of assets in the country will not change. We built (albeit very wastefully) a lot of hard assets with all this debt and these assets can be utilised by the new economy. They will be owned in the future by new participants with lower debt levels and therefore higher surplus cashflows and profits. The new owners will in effect be the new management. New management always leads to change and growth, and this should be a stimulus to the economy. Not many people will be able to transform themselves from the old guard into the new management. Many will try.

The ultimate effect of all of this will be a country which will be carrying less debt. I think we would all like that. The nature of the process is this debt cannot be officially written off for the individual, but at a systemic level it is clearly being crammed down every day. With patience, the individual will be released in the end.

If you are currently buried under your own mountain of debt, look to the future and try to act like the new management. We need new ideas and fresh management, but this will not always mean new people. The flexible few can make the change and cross the line.

A lot of assets have to be moved around to find new owners but in the end, this is only restructuring and it can be achieved once realistic values are used. Office block A will be sold to new buyer B for 50% of its debt or whatever the value is. The office block is the same asset, but the new owner can make the sums work by charging less rent because of the lower debt. This asset and debt deflation will serve to keep Ireland competitive and this will drive the economy forward, partially offsetting the destruction that the asset collapse will continue to cause. Another way to view this is as a transfer of opportunity from the old business community to a new undiscovered business community. I am sure it is obvious which side of the fence is more attractive to be on. There is plenty of opportunity and space in this new business community.

The majority of this old business community cannot believe that this is happening to them. Entrenched management, in the form of the developers for example, seem to hold a strong sense of entitlement. Power is rarely handed over without a fight and this is a very big transfer of power. They have started to believe their own message. Our business skills cannot be replaced they scream, and they really believe that they are somehow unique. In truth, we can all be replaced and very often it is healthy to have a revolving door of management. As we can see with the Fianna Fáil government, too much of one thing is never good.

As we move to liquidate the assets of the old guard, they will try to frustrate the process using all their diminishing powers through the courts and however they can. This will be a phase, and in the end it will fail.

Time is relentless and this only serves to delay the handover of power. The power will move and the future is bright for the new young business community that will emerge and take over from the old guard. It has happened through history many times, and this time we are making history.