Irish pushback strategy - we get mail | 305 comments (305 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Irish pushback strategy - we get mail (none / 1)

European Tribune - Irish pushback strategy - we get mail

Ireland is somewhat unique in the €-zone for having a genuine debt crisis. Greece, Spain and Portugal (and soon Belgium) are experiencing currency crises (similar to the one that caused the UK to leave the ERM back in 1992). ... Ireland runs a respectable trade surplus w.r.t. the rest of the €-zone

So, the logic here is that a surplus country can only get in trouble through genuine overindebtedness, whereas deficit countries first get overindebted as a result of their troubles?

I'd say Belgium is special, too. They have historically had more than 100% debt-to-GDP ratio...

Keynesianism is intellectually hard, as evidenced by the inability of many trained economists to get it - Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Feb 4th, 2011 at 03:58:53 AM EST

Re: Irish pushback strategy - we get mail (none / 1)

Countries can get in trouble in a variety of interesting and imaginative ways, so saying that surplus countries can only get in trouble through genuine over-indebtedness and deficit countries can never have a genuine debt problem would be wrong.

What is true is that in the present crisis it looks very much like the deficit countries are having a currency crisis (because the attacks are highly correlated with foreign debts and current accounts deficits, and only weakly correlated with sovereign debts and deficits), and it looks very much like Ireland is having a genuine debt crisis (since its banks are insolvent following a real estate bubble that was not an obvious macroeconomic necessity).

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Fri Feb 4th, 2011 at 07:25:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Irish pushback strategy - we get mail | 305 comments (305 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Top Diaries

Ireland 2023 Rugby World Cup Squad selected

Integrating Ukraine Into NATO Family

Leinster's demise and Munster's hope

Southern Irish disinterest in Northern Ireland affairs

Joe Biden. America's Interventionist Hero

Recent Diaries

NATO Stoltenberg Should Resign

NATO Posing the What If Question

Bi-Partisan Effort to Undermine Democracy

June 2023

Ireland 2023 Rugby World Cup Squad selected

Integrating Ukraine Into NATO Family

Southern Irish disinterest in Northern Ireland affairs

Incident Ukrainian War Display Gets Int'l Attention

German Climate Activists Group Outlawed

Leinster's demise and Munster's hope

Joe Biden. America's Interventionist Hero

Targeted Assassinations: a Bankrupt Strategy

Hijacking Peace by Zelensky for War Escalation

UA Drone Attack On Moscow

May 2023

U.S. Provoked Conflict In Europe

U.S. Will Be Ousted From Middle-East

Settler Extremism Blessed by Jerusalem Leaders

Occasional Series