Celtic Tiger becomes the hunted

Over the past few decades, bail outs by the IMF for developing countries have been widely criticised by campaigners for imposing market reforms that further destroy the ability of countries to function. Requirements such as the privatisation of water supplies in drought striken places usually tops the list of concerns and high interest rates come a close second.

As concerns about these IMF bail outs have been expressed by campaigners in richer countries, it will be interesting to see reactions to the new bail outs being provided. Ireland is the latest country to request funds and put in for $90bn yesterday (as most of us are not Bill Gates, think enough money to run the entire country for 7 months, i.e. more than half of its GDP (about EU 166m).

The latest twist on the Irish debt story is that the Irish Greens are pushing for an early general election. The Greens will do badly having been part of the coalition government and culpable of some awful decisions (e.g. Tara).