‘Suffering of Irish people outrageous’ says NY Times Paul Krugman

Stupid is as stupid does!

@lokionline I agree but the problem is psychologically the Irish were forced to give up what they held dearest, Tara, for what they were told was prosperity. It broke our spirit and the guilt they felt about voting for Fianna Fail after the M3 decisions is a betrayal of something they held sacred for 6000 years. Tara is what binds Irish people with all our differences. So now they want to punish themselves rather than realising they made a mistake and it can be fixed... you just don't mess with a nations psyche, one that sustained people through famine and 700 years of occupation and expect not to pay a price. Fix Tara everything else will follow. People can call it fairies, I call it staying true to your psyche.

@Sectionhand If we had take Krugmans advice in the first place we wouldn't be where we ar now.. the only reason we're in this debacle is because the government weren't willing to lose their own privileges. We could have easily dumped the banks debts, but for the 20 billion needed to subsidise overinflated top level public service salaries.. maintain a double administration in our HSE... ah yes, and the Croke park deal... we needed to cut back hard and fast, take the pain but dump the banks debts. We'd be growing by now.

Blame the EU. Ireland is turn out Irish as migrants, and accepting Africans as immigrants. This is not right. The Africans are claiming that the Irish are racist. So you have families breaking up because of migration, and Immigrants wanting special right. Next the African are going to want to bring back the laws where If an Irishmen is cought walking on the road at night, he will be sent to Austrail. This is What the Blacks want, and the Blacks want hiring preferences.

Today Nov 28 is the anniversary of the Ambush at Kilmichael, when the Flying Column of the Third West Cork Brigade destroyed a British terror party and showed that alien rule in Ireland was no longer sustainable. What would those heroic men, the men who lay all day in the wet ditches of West Cork as they awaited their target, what would those men have made of the worthless gangsters that now rule Ireland and administer it on behalf of foreign interests?

@sectionhand, don't you hate it when people you despise are right and you are wrong? And Krugman's been right while your side's been wrong, wrong, wrong. That's why you're reduced tousing idiots insults against Krugman, because you have nothing in the way of evidence to show he's been wrong instead of you. Hwo typical of those who've been so completely and totally wrong.

bloody unbridled greed caused this,,SO WHATS CHANGED.HAS ANY BANKER BEEN CHARGED WITH ANYTHING,WHATS TO STOP IT HAPPENING ALL OVER AGAIN..UNTIL COUNTRY'S OWN THEIR OWN BANKS AND THE PRIVATE BANKS ARE KEPT SMALL AND MANAGEABLE THESE PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS HAVE CONTROL OVER US..MASSIVE CONTROL.WHY SHOULD THERE BE PRIVATE BANKS WITH SUCH MASSIVE POWER ANYWAY?THE BANKS,AND THE ARMAMENT INDUSTRY IN THE USA HAVE RUINED THE COUNTRY,SO POWER FULL AND SO CORRUPT,IF COUNTRYS OWNED THERE OWN BANKS THESE LENDERS COULDNT SET THE EXORBITANT LENDING RATES THAT HAVE MADE COUNTRIES BANKRUPT,THE SYSTEM STINKS,,UNLESS YOU ARE A CAPITALIST OF COURSE,,THEN IT AINT BAD JACK..

This economic crisis is going to play out over the next 10-20 years. It has already being dubbed'The Great Recession'and may well be as significant as the Great Depression in terms of its long term consequences. The Irish like everyone else is going to have to come to grips with this historic reality. It will be very interesting and perhaps a classic international economic case study in the making, to watch how Iceland fares over the next 10-20 years in comparison. At the moment I have the sense that Iceland is feeling a lot better about itself for having faced up to the bankers. That sense of self-worth is a key to economic recovery. the Irish electorate need to find a political way to recover their self-worth. I think we are in for a very interesting 10 years on the political front with more changes in the political landscape than we have seen in the past 50.

The Irish need to be careful about taking Krugman's words too much to heart . He's a certifiable moron .

At least when we were ruled by Kings we could take comfort in knowing that we had nothing to do with putting the fools and idgits born in the castles in charge. Now we choose the fools and idgits who are in charge. What a breakthrough!!!

I had work in Longford on Friday. I went up the main street and there was hardly anybody there. Boarded up shops and a boarded up hotel. Very depressing. Ireland is headed back to the old days. Poor people will have nothing. What's happening to Ireland is a damning indictment of the European Union. We have been failed yet again.

Ireland should set it's own course --he is right on that !! The U.S. reportedly, has 43 million people under the poverty level. The actual unemployment (not obumma's figures) is 18%,not 9% !

And always out of the slime come the Krugman detractors - vide @rgray222 below. Never mind that the Hamilton University study showed Paul Krugman to have by far the best success rate of a plethora of right and left wing pundits. The right always hate lefties who tell it like it is and get it right.

It's time to go over the heads of the politicians to "tax" the banks and bond holders, rather than forcing the people to pay by way of higher taxes, and reductions in services. To get elected, politicians made promises to voters for programs which tax revenues could not support, and then "paid" for them by borrowing through the sale of bonds. At a time when the state could not afford borrowing for its own operations, it was pressured by the Troika to commit to billions in new debt to cover the losses of the Irish banks after the real estate bubble burst. The Irish people must take power for themselves, repudiate the euro debts, float a new currency, and move on with civil administration which lives strictly within its means. The Irish people need to organize themselves to petition for referenda at every level of government which, if passed, would replace the majority of elected representatives to pass a law or establish a policy, with the majority of all the people concerned, voting via the internet. At that point, public policy would reflect the common good, rather than what is best for special interests. Vote the bastards out!

Nice idea to disown the bank debts but there's one problem: the Irish government now needs the EYU/ECB/IMF money to operate as a government, providing basic government services for all and lovely deals for the insider crowd, in addition to paying off the irresponsible debts of well-connected and incompetent bankers. If the government is forced to cut back severely the Irish people might actually stage a revolt. But not until then.