Citizens protest austerity measures as Ireland on international life support

Ed Morrissey wrote this morning about Ireland taking $90B in bailout money because their economy is in collapse due to their switch to the Euro. I found this excellent news report that delves into the problems that have led to the demise of what was once a thriving economy. You’ll see a similar narrative that you’ve seen here – housing bubble goes bust and the government spends and spends to try and fill the hole to avoid a banking sector collapse. In fact they spend so much that their budget goes from 3% to 32% of GDP and now they are out of money. Citizens have begun to protest austerity measures, as unemployment is very high and the country’s debt is through the roof. And now some are calling for their low corporate interest rate of 12% to be raised to help pay off their debts. The problem is that this low corporate interest rate is probably the one good thing they have going for them, because it gives them a competitive advantage over other countries in bringing more businesses to Ireland and keeping the ones they’ve already wooed. If they raise it, as the video states, it will be counterproductive to them growing their way out of this economic mess:


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