The Irish Economic Situation: Hopeless, but not Serious

In Billy Wilder’s classic movie “One, Two, Three” James Cagney plays a hard-charging marketing executive coaching his clueless son-in-law on the correct answers to give during an important job interview.  The son-in-law is told to describe the current international situation as “serious, but not hopeless,” but during the job interview he mangles this and describes it as “hopeless, but not serious.”  The interviewer is impressed with his originality and insight.  The same mangled answer might apply to the current Irish economic situation: hopeless, but not serious. The corner has been turned. The Irish economy will now experience a slow, steady recovery as the IMF-guided programme unwinds the deep structural flaws that developed in the Irish economy during the credit-fueled bubble of 2002-2007.

The Four-Year Fiscal Plan

The fiscal plan is due to be published tomorrow.  In this article, I look at some of the key issues.

Eichengreen suggests some light reading

Barry Eichengreen provides a reading list here.

Honohan Gives His Views

His latest speech is here.

Fixing the flaws in the Eurozone

Over a VoxEU, Stanley Black suggests a way of breaking the EMU without breaking the Euro.