A superior piece of writing and reporting from the Irish Times, tracing the incredibly stupid decisions by the Irish government that led to their current status as an economic basket case."Irish insolvency is now less a matter of economics than of arithmetic," says the editorial. It is like watching a train wreck in slow motion, reading how first the banks, then the government, and then the European Central Bank screwed the Irish taxpayer to the point that by 2014, each worker will owe 120,000 Euros to the government: If everything goes according to plan, as it always does, Ireland's government debt will top €190 billion by 2014, with another €45 billion in Nama and €35 billion in bank recapitalisation, for a total of €270 billion, plus whatever losses the Irish Central Bank has made on its emergency lending. Subtracting off the likely value of the banks and Nama assets, Namawinelake (by far the best source on the Irish economy) reckons our final debt...(Read Full Post)