The reason I am interested in this debate is that the EU/IMF has insisted on the reform and opening to competition of the Irish Medical and Legal oligopolies which tend to be dominated by small, self-regulating professions charging outrageous fees.  In this limited sense the IMF/EU intervention may actually be partially progressive in challenging the local bourgeoisie's stranglehold on key economic sectors. If (for example) much of the Greek public sector is not actually very economically productive - or is actually preventing the emergence of a more productive economy - then the EU/IMF intervention might not be entirely retrogressive however painful it may obviously be for often lowly paid public sector workers. Hence my questions....

Index of Frank's Diaries