According to Thomas Geoghegan in an op-ed in the New York Times, Ireland is entirely to blame for its current dire economic situation and should not rely on Europe to bail them out of their debt with foreign banks.
Until Ireland joined the European Union it remained a small “helpless” country but now Geoghegan says it seems to expect financial backing from the European Union, which he says really means Germany and France.
“The Germans can support their own welfare state, but not Ireland’s and Spain’s.
The E.U., really Germany, took compassion. It gave Ireland a home in the E.U., set it up with money, all sorts of subsidies. And what did the Irish do in return? Did they offer grateful novenas?
Unfortunately not, instead he said “they cut taxes to lure corporate headquarters away from high-tax Germany and France, which were paying high taxes partly to fund the Irish. Ireland took up other U.S. ways: it kept taxes low and went into debt.”
France and Germany attempted to improve the European Union, while Ireland stuck to being greedy and becoming rich. However, soon everything came crashing down upon them, and Germany had to come to their rescue.
“To bail out the Greeks and Irish and the rest, Germany has had to prop up the euro. O.K., the Germans had an interest in doing so, as the financial center of the euro zone. But now, to prop up the Irish for a third time, the Germans are being asked to run big deficits at home,” said Geoghegan.
He questions whether Ireland understands the concept that they cannot keep running up a massive external deficit. He said “As Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and all the other orphans taken into the E.U. by the rich Germans and French, they ultimately have to earn their way.”
Geoghegan said “Being in the clutches of foreign bankers, these countries have lost their freedom of action. The big problem with Keynesian economics, as we now know (as Keynes himself knew, but most of his disciples don’t) is that it assumes the country in the slump is not already in the grip of foreign bankers.”
He continues “The countries like Ireland and Spain, which should be running Keynesian-type debt right now, can’t borrow.”
Describing an analogy coined by Martin Wolf he said: “It’s simply the difference noted by Martin Wolf between worker-ant countries like Germany, which pay their way, and grasshopper-countries like the U.S., Spain and Ireland, which are debtor countries and have to borrow. Why should the Germans go into hock to bail out the Irish yet again, so the Irish can go back to stealing their business?
“On Independence Day, we should think of all the countries that have lost their independence to the global banks.”
7 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.00041793 | Jul 18, 2010, 06:09 PM EDT
once again you americans come out top of the league for complete ignorance towards the rest of the world! IRELAND has made AMERICA billions of dollars over the past decade, nearly all your companies european headquarters are based in dublin, the top 10 AMERICAN companies on the stock exchange have all there offices in IRELAND, MICROSOFT, DELL, INTEL, HP, XEROX, BOSTON SCIENTIFIC AND ON AND ON.... WHY? because AMERICA needed IRELAND to crack europe, IRELAND is the central hub for europe. were was vista designed? IRELAND, were are the processors for the computers you are blogging from? IRELAND were is your mc cafee virus scan designed? IRELAND. the irish people who run your european operations and some of the most highly skilled, gifted young people you could have. yes we have took a BAILOUT on a few occassions from germany, but we will pay it back, the irish economy has grown enormously over the past 20 years, in the 1980's there were 1.5million working, now there are 3million. we are only 70 years as an independent nation, after men, woman and children were suppressed and beaten and tortured to death for 600 years by the british. we deserved the cash we got over the last 70 years as compensation. and germany owed the world a digout after they murdered millions of jews and tried to bomb half of europe! NEXT TIME YOU INGNORANT AMERICANS GO SHOOTING YOUR STUPID MOUTHS OF, GO READ A HISTORY BOOK!
trigger | Jul 10, 2010, 03:35 AM EDT
Wow, I know the country is in bad shape but its rising fast with the hard decisions Brian Lenihan took in the last budget and our exports have risen 15% over the last 12 months add in the dollar and sterling strengthing against the euro has shown recently that we are heading in the right direction faster than all of our EU colleagues. Maybe I'm a bit biased but there seems to be a lot of putting Ireland down recently in the New York Times some deserved but more just kicking when we are down.
wardy43 | Jul 09, 2010, 11:50 PM EDT
Geoghegan is no idiot! He is a highly educated, 61 year old labour attorney and author. He appears, as we say at home, to have "lost the run of himself". Perhaps the reality that the labour movement in the US has declined all through his working life, has motivated him to branch out into other areas. Like many of the "intelligentsia", he believes that he is and expert in all fields! It would suit him better to devote his efforts toward fixing the problem in his own country. The Germans are very capable of speaking for themselves and looking after their own interests. It is very apparent to me that Geoghegan despite his name, has very little knowledge of modern Irish history and the challenges it faced following independence. If he is really concerned with countries "stealing business" he should direct his attentions toward China, rather than a tiny country like Ireland. His article had a demeaning and condescending tone that makes me wonder what his real agenda is.
Conjoly | Jul 04, 2010, 10:48 PM EDT
All very dramatic but has little to do with reality. Ireland is a member of the EU and is part of the Eurozone. Those memberships come with rights and responsibilities, which Ireland will fulfill as any other member does. It's got nothing to do with an entire nation going 'cap in hand' to anyone.
citizen69 | Jul 04, 2010, 06:55 AM EDT
Successive governments in the Republic of Ireland have always looked towards Europe & USA with cap in hand, and what have they ever gave in return for this generosity?
shuvonn | Jul 03, 2010, 05:28 PM EDT
When you join an economic community you can and should be able to depend on them during bad times. IF it was illegal to have lower taxes as most likely it may be now with the passing of the Maastricht and Lisbon treaty then Ireland would have been taken to task by the EU prior to this person who obviously does NOT understand that Europe (members of the EU who have signed up to those treaties AND participate in the euro) is similiar to the US now, and does function as a UNIT as opposed to singular countries. Lets face it the US companies took FULL advantage of the tax free years in Ireland then TOOK OFF without paying a penny taxes there, so Geoghan does not know what he is talking about and his opinion is just that AN OPINION and and ILL informed one at that...
WoundedKnee | Jul 03, 2010, 11:02 AM EDT
I don't know who this fellow is, but he's an idiot. Ireland has not run up an external deficit. Ireland's exports are booming--he's ignorant of a basic fact. The problem is the huge welfare burden of supporting the dependents of the throngs of foreign migrant workers and non-workers.