Ireland and the European Debt Crisis
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-11-16/ireland-and-european-debt-crisis
After 800 years of economic and cultural poverty, Ireland emerged in the 1990s as the fastest-growing country in Europe. Then the "Celtic Tiger" boom veered into a housing and credit bubble even bigger than that of the United States. Today, Ireland's massive debt is stirring fears of a another bailout from the European Union. Guest host Susan Page and her guests discuss how Ireland's woes are affecting Europe's economy and what the U.S. can learn from its experience.
Guests
David Lynch
senior writer with Bloomberg News and author of "When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out: The World's Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again."
Uri Dadush
senior associate and director in Carnegie’s International Economics Program, former director of international trade and former director of economic policy at the World Bank.
Lara Marlowe
U.S. correspondent for "The Irish Times"
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
The man pictured is actually quite a well known Irish poet and writer. His name is Pat Ingoldsby. And 'trys' is spelt 'tries'.
It isn't just the housing and credit bubble. Ireland is suffering from some of the same corporate greed as we in the U.S.
For example: Dell Computers' operations in Limerick profited from Ireland's well-educated population for nearly 20 years. Dell got greedy and moved its operations to Poland where labor was cheaper.
So, I guess the secret for all countries (us included) is to lower your standard of living if you want to keep jobs from moving elsewhere?
I lost all my inspiration in the Global Poetry Bubble too
(first line of a good verse, feel free to use it).
I agree with the emerging critique expressed by earlier commentators. The intervention of the World Bank, EU administration and others is in behalf of elite investor return and is inverse to the standard of living in the jurisdictions concerned. If enough governments let the wealthy jump-rope go slack and refused to recite their rhymes we could take care of human need first. Many poor people and those in rural Ireland saw nothing from the boom anyway, just as it was here. I was ashamed of President Obama bullying South Korea for a trade deal when he knows what such stupid deals do to hardworking hourly waged workers and small farmers. No elected official is considering what would make a healthy and equitable economy at home. They're all out head-hunting on alien turf. Stupid is as stupid does.
Are the enterprise zones and business start up funding programs threatened? Will the IMF become the big bully threatening entreprenuerial efforts?
I am an Irish listener and I noted an interesting comment made yesterday by a woman on NPR. She said that when she looks at Ireland she thinks of the Black Knight from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. She said how even though the Knight got its left arm cut off by King Arthur he said "its just a flesh wound" She thought that Ireland should be crying for help, asking for a bailout, instead of saying that it can deal with its problems internally, Well the thing about the Irish is that to us the economic woes are just a flesh wound, we have only lost one limb so far, we have had a lot worse including great famines and maybe the economic cricis of the 1980s was just as bad as now and Ireland is one of the three proudest nations on Earth (other two being India and USA). Ireland can fight its problems like it fights a bloody war quite well with one arm chopped off and even with both arms chopped off. It might get a bit difficult if not impossible with one of our legs chopped off as well but Ireland will only give up with both our legs and our arms chopped off, then we might "call it a draw". We still have three limbs to spend.
Ireland is too proud to ever become a beggar nation I would have expected more from the DR show then to have such one sided commentators on the subject. USA would not ask for a bailout from a hypothetical nation ever if it was having economic problems, so why should we? If we have to, we fight to the death to keep our pride, look at the killing in the troubles in northern Ireland, that was not about civil rights or freedom but national pride and we would die and kill to be respected. Irish national anthem goes "Soldiers are we, who's lives are pledged to Ireland". Irish are brought up to believe we are soldiers. In the long run this economic cricis will be a good thing because when we fix ourselves by ourselves we will have even more respect. I'm very proud to be Irish right now looking at what we have done so far.