Luck Of the Irish

Ireland became the latest country in the sixteen-nation zone that uses the euro currency to apply for a bailout, totalling nearly $140 billion, which would come from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The Irish Finance Ministry reported that the money was needed for a credit line for its state-backed banks, which have lost $69 billion as the Irish economy has tanked and its deficit has soared to 32 percent of its gross domestic product - ten times the amount allowed in the Eurozone. The Irish economy - not too long ago the envy of Europe - is strugling in the aftermath of the global recession and the Irish government's own decision to insure its banks against all losses. The Iberian countries - Spain and Portugal - may be next, due to their heavy borrowing costs on bond markets.

In what also amounts to a cosmic joke, several British banks are also lending money to Ireland in an effort to protect their own investments in Irish banks. This amounts to the Irish taking a helping hand from their stepmother country, a country that oppressed the Irish people for nine hundred years. Hmm, I wonder what the interest rates are on a loan like that?

Ireland hopes to get its books in order by 2014 with a program of severe budget cuts and tax increases. The prospect of being at the mercy of bankers from the United Kingdom should give them some incentive to get it done sooner.