Celtic Tiger = Epic Fail

[Joby]

(Newser) – As many as 120,000 marched through Dublin today, enraged over a government plan to repair the economy by freezing worker pay and taxing pensions, the Irish Times reports. Calling the strategy "economic treason" in a speech to the crowd, union leader David Begg blamed "a business elite" for the nation's economic woes. "Clean out the Augean stables completely and be rid of them all,” he said.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, facing a rising budget deficit, defended his economic plan in a statement before the march, Reuters reports. "The measures are difficult and, in some cases, painful," the government said, but "they are both necessary and fair." One council worker laughed when asked her opinion of the plan, which critics say leaves banks and developers unaffected. "It's unprintable," she said.

120K Protest 'Economic Treason' in Dublin - World news | Newser

DUBLIN (AFP) – The Irish government on Sunday faced mounting pressure over its response to the economic crisis, after some 120,000 people staged one of Dublin's biggest protests in living memory over spending cuts.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen's government has been at record lows in opinion polls since recession hit the one-time Celtic Tiger economy, and Enda Kenny, the leader of the main opposition party Fine Gael, has called for a general election....

Cowen is bringing in an initial two billion euro (2.6 billion dollar) package of cuts designed to stabilise the Irish economy, which hit recession in the first half of 2008. He has warned it will shrink by up to 10 percent by 2010 and wants total savings of 15 billion euros over the next five years in a bid to stabilise Irish finances.

According to an Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll earlier this month, Cowen's Fianna Fail party now lags in third place, and satisfaction with the Fianna Fail/Green Party government has dropped to 14 percent.

Support for Cowen's party has almost halved since May 2007, the poll showed. The anti-government protesters have been particularly angry about a pension levy on some 350,000 public servants designed to save about 1.4 billion euros this year.

Pressure grows on Irish govt after huge protest

I thought this was interesting, and I didn't notice any threads covering the massive protests. Anyway, it appears once the economy sours all the right-wing B.S. suddenly isn't very chic anymore, to say the least.

I really do feel for the people who bought into the neo-liberal policies which have now failed. But, this is a republic and they are more responsible than people who had these horrendous policies forced on them via dictatorship.

But dawn may be coming. I hear they're only going to trust Keynsians now! :lol::lol::lol:

Of course, they're going to begging the EU/IMF for a while it looks like.

2008 should be remembered as the death-knell for neo-liberalism. Of course, it won't be as more and more countries are led into the trap of believing growth can last forever if "we just have lowest corporate taxes around." And then we will all watch as another economy goes down the crapper...

Seriously, Cowen is now trying to cut thousands of jobs and pensions in order to help with the recession. I guess that makes sense to the neo-liberal economists :roll:

 

[Wessexman]

That a lot of Ireland's growth is due to support and privileges, which perhaps were adatped quite well granted, within the EU is well known.

 

[Australianlibertarian]

120K Protest 'Economic Treason' in Dublin - World news | Newser



Pressure grows on Irish govt after huge protest

I thought this was interesting, and I didn't notice any threads covering the massive protests. Anyway, it appears once the economy sours all the right-wing B.S. suddenly isn't very chic anymore, to say the least.

I really do feel for the people who bought into the neo-liberal policies which have now failed. But, this is a republic and they are more responsible than people who had these horrendous policies forced on them via dictatorship.

But dawn may be coming. I hear they're only going to trust Keynsians now! :lol::lol::lol:

Of course, they're going to begging the EU/IMF for a while it looks like.

2008 should be remembered as the death-knell for neo-liberalism. Of course, it won't be as more and more countries are led into the trap of believing growth can last forever if "we just have lowest corporate taxes around." And then we will all watch as another economy goes down the crapper...

Seriously, Cowen is now trying to cut thousands of jobs and pensions in order to help with the recession. I guess that makes sense to the neo-liberal economists :roll:

Since when did neo-classical economists advocate massive eurozone stimulus packages, that Ireland received during the 90's and early 00's....... When did neo-liberal economists advocate that the Irish base their economy mostly on service industries, without producing tangible products?...... Since when did neo-liberal economists advocate massive increases in the money supply? Since when did neo-liberal economists regard skyrocketing house prices in Dublin as wealth, while ignoring large increases in private debt?

If anything Ireland's economy is an example of free-euro-markets, with foreign agricultural tarrifs, mixed in with good old Keynesian economic stimulus packages and a glut of credit induced consumption..... I'm sorry but these are economic activities the very few neo-liberal economists would advocate for.

Neo-liberal economists advocated strict monetarism, not an increase in M3. Neo-liberal economists advocate free-trade, not selective trade that favours uncompetitive and expensive Euro farmers. Neo-liberals would reject European Union Aid packages that were delivered to Ireland by the European Unions development policy. Neo-liberals worry about debt, private or government, and do not classify wealth as equity, as some moronic economists have.......

We can continue on with this discussion, but the economic crisis has very little to do with neo-liberal economics and more to with increases in the money supply and the consequential speculative and irrational exuberance that was involved in many economies around the world.

 

[Tucker Case]

Ireland is still gonna come out of this better than they were in the 80's.

 

[Wessexman]

Ireland is still gonna come out of this better than they were in the 80's.

Well it is now in the EU rather than the EEC.

 

[Australianlibertarian]

The ECC was just the Trojan horse towards socialist Europe. Free trade morphed into massive Euro-government. The ultimate deception of the socialists.....