Ireland’s Austerity Hailed as Example of Financial Survival

[alp227]

Source: NYT

As European leaders scramble to overcome the Continent’s debt crisis, many are pointing to Ireland as a model for how to get out of the troubles.

Having embraced severe belt-tightening to mend its tattered finances, Ireland is showing glimmers of a turnaround. A year after it received a 67.5 billion euro bailout, or about $90 billion at current exchange rates, modest growth has returned and the budget deficit is shrinking.

But the effects of austerity have pummeled Ireland’s fragile economy, leaving scars that are likely to take years to heal. Nearly 40,000 Irish have fled the country this year alone in search of a brighter future elsewhere; the trend is expected to continue.

“This is still an insolvent economy,” said Constantin Gurdgiev, an economist and lecturer at Trinity College in Dublin. “Just because we’re playing a good-boy role and not making noises like the Greeks doesn’t mean Ireland is healthy.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/business/global/despite-praise-for-its-austerity-ireland-and-its-people-are-being-battered.html?pagewanted=all

[Demeter]

1. Nobody's Surviving, nor is there a recovery

and anyone who claims otherwise is selling something toxic.

[DeSwiss]

2. K&R

- I thought the Irish had had enough of this.....

http://www.acrimony.org/article_What_IS_for_Supper_Ma.php">
Old Lady evicted from her home
Photo courtesy of The National Library of Ireland

http://www.acrimony.org/article_What_IS_for_Supper_Ma.php">
Eviction scene during the famine

http://www.acrimony.org/article_What_IS_for_Supper_Ma.php">
Starving Irish Family
Photo courtesy of The National Library of Ireland

[hedgehog]

3. You don't have to go that far back - most of my grandmother's

family emigrated. Her two brothers stayed, but most of their kids emigrated.

I was stunned at the changes I saw in Castlebar last fall - it was not the sleepy market town I saw back in '74! But all the new houses and cars are meaningless if your kids end up on another continent!

[Javaman]

4. right. I'm sure the poor have a vastly different story to tell. nt

[Gringostan]

10. I haven't seen that picture since life magazine

I haven't seen that picture since life magazine; the 60's I think. It is the personification of student revolt - I hope we as a people haven't forgotten.

[Javaman]

11. It's from the '68 Democratic Convention. :) nt

[ninehippies]

5. Ireland’s Austerity Hailed as Example of Financial Survival

Easier to tighten belts after you've starved the peasants.

[lovuian]

6. Austere measures don't work only make the poor worse

and the rich richer

[saras]

7. Iceland is a MUCH better example, and a better one to extrapolate from.

[Gringostan]

9. I love it...

"Pigs fly..." and you are 100% correct about Iceland. The sooner people catch on, the sooner we can rid ourselves of the corporate class...

[DCKit]

8. I'm sure the average folk of Ireland will be overjoyed to hear that.

Last I heard, most of them were overseas looking for jobs.