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Irish Tiger turned kitty under the firm hand of neo-liberalism
Ireland once heralded as an ‘economic tiger’, like the Asian tiger economies of Korea and Japan, but now has become insolvent. The key difference is that Korea and Japan did not bend to international pressure and open their economies to ‘free trade’ and other disastrous neo-liberal prescriptions, they protected their domestic economies with tariffs and limited the mobility of capitol so it benefited domestic industry first and investors second. Ireland took the other path throwing off domestic protections and embracing the investor market and ‘free trade’ (see Chile and Haiti) and their economy, once plundered, has been tossed aside to die at the wayside. Well, not die per say, but now requiring a huge bailout to save what is left of the Irish economy for those who depend on it the most, the people of Ireland.
“Ireland is running a deficit of €19 billion ($26.4 billion Cdn), which Lenihan said could not be financed at current market rates. He said the country needs help to pay its bills and provide a contingency fund to support banks that are hemorrhaging cash.”
This is yet another shining example of the socialism for the rich in action, as we see the EU and IMF rushing in with public dollars to prop up yet anther doomed neo-liberal experiment gone horribly wrong (or right depending on how you look at it). Austerity and public service roll backs are about to be unleashed on the people of Ireland, the investors, having made their money are long gone, already looking for the next country to rape.
Update with a hat-tip to Sabina Becker from News for the Restless for the link to the Youtube video.
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