Ireland should 'do an Argentina'

[defendandprotect]

Ireland should 'do an Argentina'

The Irish people expected to pay in austerity cuts for their banks' sins have another option. Reject the ECB and IMF, ditch the euro

Dean Baker guardian.co.uk, Monday 22 November 2010 13.30 GMT

EXCERPT ONLY ....

Ireland is currently experiencing a 14.1% unemployment rate. As a result of bailout conditions that will require more cuts in government spending and tax increases, the unemployment rate is almost certain to go higher. The Irish people are likely to wonder what their economy would look like if they had not been rescued.

The pain being inflicted on Ireland by the ECB/IMF is completely unnecessary. If the ECB committed itself to make loans available to Ireland at low interest rates, a mechanism entirely within its power, then Ireland would have no serious budget problem. Its huge projected deficits stem primarily from the combination of high interest costs on its debt, and the result of operating at levels of economic output that are well below full employment – both outcomes that can be pinned largely on the ECB.

It is worth remembering that Ireland's government was a model of fiscal probity prior to the economic meltdown. It had run large budget surpluses for the 5 years prior to the onset of the crisis. Ireland's problem was certainly not out of control government spending; it was a reckless banking system that fueled an enormous housing bubble. The economic wizards at the ECB and the IMF either couldn't see the bubble or didn't think it was worth mentioning.

The failure of the ECB or IMF to take steps to rein in the bubble before the crisis has not made these international financial institutions shy about using a heavy hand in imposing conditions now. The plan is to impose stiff austerity, requiring much of Ireland's workforce to suffer unemployment for years to come as a result of the failure of their bankers and the ECB.







http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/22/ecb-ireland-bailout-argentina

[Chulanowa]

1. The IMF is simply a neo-colonial method of plundering poorer states

[Fool Count]

2. Not just Ireland, everyone should do Argentina.

Greece should have done it. Iceland should have done it. Ireland and Portugal should do it. Hell, US should do it when it comes to it.
The only sure way to get from under the debt slavery to the rich is to refuse paying them (sovereign bankruptcy, aka default) not to
keep borrowing more and starving themselves to death. Russia did it before Argentina in 1997 and then too the default was followed
by most spectacular and sustained economic growth in the country's history. The sooner all governments realize that default is the
only way out of this crisis, the easier it will be for everyone to survive the inevitable.

[defendandprotect]

3. Exactly my feeling ... and our own

"austerity" BS is the same thing --

It is wars bankrupting our Treasury --

MIC bankrupting our Treasury --

and too many doing their dirty work for them rather than standing against them!