Dear Ireland, take the bailout. Yours, Jean-Claude

With a large hat-tip to the Irish Times, here’s a friendly 2010 missive from former ECB president, Jean-Claude Trichet, to former Irish finance minister Brian Lenihan suggesting, secretly of course, that Ireland might just want to apply for that bailout if it wanted to continue to enjoy access to emergency liquidity assistance. As the Irish Times says, “around €50 billion [in ELA] had been extended to Irish banks at the time – with additional funds approved by the ECB the day before.”

More so, the letter “was sent the day after Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan appeared on Morning Ireland to say Ireland had no option but to apply for support. The ECB letter called for a “swift response” from the government. Two days later, on November 21st, the formal application for the bailout was made.”

You’ll find the letter itself below, but here are the key lines: