"It's a Very Bad Thing When Economists Start to be Interesting"

Yes it is. Despite what the Irish government says, it’s now surely a matter of when Ireland has a bailout forced upon it. We left “if” behind some time ago. Even the non-denial denials are specific enough to be revealing. As Shane Ross put it on Sunday, “The game is up.” Perhaps it won’t happen today and pehaps it won’t be tomorrow but it will happen soon.

And the worst of it is that it’s not really about Ireland at all. The history of the Greek and Irish experiences (for all their differences) suggests that saving one patient merely endangers the next sickly country in the waiting room. None of the doctors seem well-qualified though perhaps none of the patients can be saved anyway. The logic – if such there be – of the matter seems to be that once Ireland is dealt with, this grisly drama will simply transfer to Portugal and Spain where it will have a refreshed cast but much the same plot.