34 Comments

• billie061 | Dec 02, 2011, 11:45 PM EST

  And where are all the fat cats fleeing to your country drumm sean dunne ect where they prob have their money hidden. and who will the budget hit next week joe soap the elderly and children

• Saoirse9 | Dec 01, 2011, 11:19 AM EST

  Pardon my last sentence, was a bit in a kerfuffle as I was writing it. It should've read: Don't play into that old game, created by "the powers that be", since time immemorial.

• Saoirse9 | Dec 01, 2011, 11:16 AM EST

  Enough with the demonizing of immigrants! Yis sound like the right-wing eejits on Faux (Fox) "News". Bankers screwed over Ireland, and continue to do so there and around the world. Is your knowledge of history so limited you cannot recall when Irish immigrants to the US were blamed for the economic ills of that particular time? Immigrants are again being blamed for problems not of their creation here in the US. Wake up! And follow the money. Those are the folks screwing over the 98% of us. Everything else is just race-baiting. Much like "playing the Orange Card" back in the day. Giving some poor eejit another poorer eejit so he can feel better about his economically depressed situation. It's called scapegoating. Don't play into the powers that be old game.

• eiregirl | Dec 01, 2011, 05:19 AM EST

  eh, duh!! Mr. Krugman is just talking shop. Instead he should go and offer his service pro bono if he is so worried about what we already know. And would you all zip it about immigration. We have planes now, people move around the world and settle. GETOVERIT.

• Irishblack | Dec 01, 2011, 04:30 AM EST

  GeorgeDillon, I'm an African migrant living in Ireland. Unless you have the right to stop me from expressing my concerns about matters concerning the Irish nation, I guess you'll just have to watch me do it helplessly. I asked the question..if they close off immigration completely, do you think Ireland will be back to the good times when Anglo were throwing money at developers like crazy? George, focus on the main issue. Stop thinking immigration is the root of all Irish problems.

• tempranillo | Nov 30, 2011, 11:10 PM EST

  this is really simple to explain.square one. Ireland's economy is open. that means exports & imports are very important. whilst that important fact was ignored, banks over did it on real estate. fluthered on real estate. kalabingbagnboom. in the states, lehman's demise causes a creditiquidity crisis. ireland has not recovered. and why is that? return to square one. europe is ....well, de-toxing.............and things gotta get better before ireland prospers.that said, the suffering is outrageous & we ought to be trying to understand how ireland can become expand its markets---Ireland should not get pneunomia when germany sneezes.no need to get sociological

• GeorgeDillon | Nov 30, 2011, 02:40 PM EST

  I've heard this garbage before, the stuff that Irishblack is putting forward. It's garbage because 1/ people who oppose Mass Immigration are more likely to oppose the Irish ruling class than people who support the Irish ruling class project of Mass Immigration and 2/ it was the same Irish ruling class which has brought the country to ruin that promoted and instituted Mass Immigration. All their other policies were corrupt and incompetent, but BlackIrish wants us to think that actually one of the ruling class's principal policies --Mass Immigration--was a wonderful idea! Garbage, BlackIrish. The ones who gave Ireland Mass Immigration are the ones who gave Ireland Mass Emigration. I'm assuming you are an Irish citien, Irishblack. Please confirm. If you are an African migrant in Ireland you have no right to take part in a discourse about Irish immigration policy. You should be neither seen nor heard on matters of concern to the Irish nation.

• Irishblack | Nov 30, 2011, 05:41 AM EST

  @Pittsburghkid, the blacks are only calling the Irish racist because now that Ireland is struggling, a total of 40,000 black people living in Ireland are no longer welcome..that is xhenophobia. Instead of Irish people standing up against greedy Irish bankers, developers and politicians who have nest-eggs of Irish taxpayers money in off-shore accounts and civil servants getting lump sums of 300K and pensions of 200K, you decide to blame black people. Nowonder it took 800 years to get freedom. The only fighting spirit I see in Ireland is at any GAA All Ireland Final. Stop blaming foreigners for your problems and stand up and fight your own people (who happen to be ass white as you) who have dragged Ireland to it's knees.

• seanomelbourne | Nov 29, 2011, 05:15 PM EST

  Right winghunter should balance his reading material with Klugmans positives.

• sirpeter | Nov 29, 2011, 01:48 PM EST

  mairdemalone.I'm trying to work it out.But I can't seem to get the figures to add up to where 90.2 million people are in need.Italy seems to be in a very bad way with 50 million in need.They only have a population of 60.6 million.When you say they are in need.Do you mean they need a new car?Because if they drive Fiats they will.lol

• mairdemalone | Nov 29, 2011, 12:41 PM EST

  Ireland's 2.5 million people in need; Italy's 50 million; Greece's 9 million;Portugal''s 8 million;Spain's 38 million adds up to 90.2 million people who are suffering the worse of the greed perpetrated on them by those without empathy or compassion: so called "Captains of Industry; bank CEO, Government Officials and Church Leaders. So this Christmas, lets ask the richest 1210 Billionaires in the world to give enough Billions of Euros to cover a gift of 2,250 Euros to each man, woman and child, next years DEPRESSION will be averted. If you don't believe me, work it out. (2,250 will increase productivity, which increases workers, increases sales, increases profit for every one. Its time for those with money they will never spend to share their wealth with those who helped them create it. Donating expensive art to galleries the poor cannot afford to visit, is a crying shame.

• sirpeter | Nov 29, 2011, 10:39 AM EST

  Ireland is just an onlooker at this stage when it comes to Europe.Who the hell is suffering anyway?I don't know anyone who is suffering from the austerity measures.Not yet anyway.The government are still making sure everyone has a roof over their heads and every family have at least €700 cash every week plus the other load of free benefits.When I see the street riots.Then I'll know it's getting bad.

• Winghunter | Nov 29, 2011, 06:10 AM EST

  Comrade Krugman is one of the worst excuses for human beings we have in the US (The Nobel prize has recently proven to be nothing more than a means to award a Communist agenda). But, don't take my word for it, check out the 49 pages of links documenting his treasonous and psychotically drooling idiocies http://bit.ly/rtERv5

• Winghunter | Nov 29, 2011, 06:04 AM EST

  Comrade Krugman is one of the worst excuses for human beings we have in the US (The Nobel prize has recently proven to be nothing more than a means to award a Communist agenda). But, don't take my word for it, check out the 49 pages of links documenting his treasonous and psychotically drooling idiocies bit.ly/rtERv5

• Sectionhand | Nov 29, 2011, 03:03 AM EST

  jamthecat ... I don't think Krugman uses spell check either .

• bogsidebunny | Nov 29, 2011, 12:30 AM EST

  Stupid is as stupid does!

• PolinDeB | Nov 28, 2011, 07:19 PM EST

  @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.

• PolinDeB | Nov 28, 2011, 07:11 PM EST

  @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.

• Pittsburghkid | Nov 28, 2011, 06:58 PM EST

  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.

• GeorgeDillon | Nov 28, 2011, 04:02 PM EST

  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?

• jamthecat | Nov 28, 2011, 03:31 PM EST

  @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.

• merefalow | Nov 28, 2011, 03:07 PM EST

  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..

• lokionline | Nov 28, 2011, 02:03 PM EST

  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.

• Sectionhand | Nov 28, 2011, 12:48 PM EST

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

• tocon1941 | Nov 28, 2011, 12:40 PM EST

  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!!!

• getmeouttahere | Nov 28, 2011, 12:25 PM EST

  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.

• peterson | Nov 28, 2011, 11:55 AM EST

  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% !

• kevinhayes | Nov 28, 2011, 11:24 AM EST

  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.

• SeamusMor | Nov 28, 2011, 10:43 AM EST

  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!

• CitizenWhy | Nov 28, 2011, 10:14 AM EST

  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.

• rgray222 | Nov 28, 2011, 10:10 AM EST

  Please consider the source, Krugman is only good at making headlines and picking up awards. He is so out of touch with reality that he might as well be living on another planet!

• stephendoyle | Nov 28, 2011, 09:41 AM EST

  If ever there was a people that is familiar with suffering it is the IRISH. Only in this case it was self inflicted....

• CaptainCon | Nov 28, 2011, 09:06 AM EST

  The Republic of Ireland's financial gotterdamerung was inevitable from the framing of the constitution of corruption set up by De Valera the carpetbagger who operated the state's first ponxi scheme at the Irish Press. That set the tone for corruption at the highest level of the state for much of the short history of the state. The carpetbaggers laughably referred to as an 'elite' or 'Golden Circle' have been stealing from the public income stream ever since- from expenses in the Dail to covering up large scale fraud in the banking sector today and all of it accomplished with the assistance of an unregulated profession- the Irish barrister. Even now the Irish Gardai and legal profession are dancing around trying to avoid finding any reason to prosecute for the fraud and market abuse in the Irish banking sector because they don't want those banks letting everyone know who was getting under the counter loans. That includes the media sector. The current Minister for Justice is well aware I know for a fact that the law was broken by at least one major bank regularly and knowingly in the IFSC and has done nothing but attempt to find ways to cover it up.

• LoyalCitizen | Nov 28, 2011, 08:38 AM EST

  Wait until the truth comes out someday of how they steal from the people by using opinions in law illegally.........Today's circumstances are only the tip of the iceberg.