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The Irish Economic Miracle

 
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thepeel



Joined: 08 Aug 2004

PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:19 am    Post subject: The Irish Economic Miracle Reply with quote

An interesting read.

Ireland sounds like the type of place I would like to live when done school. Young, dynamic and booming.

Is it easy for Canadians to migrate there? Hows the weather?

Quote:
The Irish Economic Miracle
One part fiscal; one part openness.

By Reuven Brenner

How did Ireland go from being among the poorest places in Western Europe to one of the richest? How did it attract the headquarters of 1,000 nternational companies? How did it come to rank, by some measures, among the EU�s top 15 original members? With per capita GDP estimated at $37,800 (U.S.), Ireland is now tops in Western Europe.

The Irish deserve applause for initiating drastic fiscal and regulatory changes that have gone against the trends set by the EU�s more sclerotic members. But it would be misleading to infer that any society can now emulate these policies and expect similar success. There�s more to the Irish lesson.



Ask first these questions: What happened to the financial center that was once in Montreal? It moved � together with some 400,000 people � to Toronto. Where are the Cuban brains? In Florida, and that�s where they prospered while Cuba lapsed into dire poverty. Where is Mexico�s human capital? Ten percent or more has come to the United States. Where did hundreds of thousands of Russian scientists, engineers, and technicians go? Israel. And where has the talent been flowing in Europe? To Ireland: Over roughly a decade, more than 400,000 newcomers have moved there, an addition of 10 percent to the Irish population.

Here�s what Ireland did � or had to do � to attract this wave of talent and ambition to its shores.



To begin, the obvious: In 1986, Ireland slashed spending in areas such as health expenditures, education, agricultural spending, roads and housing, and the military, while abolishing agencies such as the National Social Services Board, the Health Education Bureau, and regional development organizations. By 1993, government non-interest spending declined to 41 percent of GNP, down from a high of 55 percent of GNP in 1985. Subsequently, it significantly lowered corporate tax rates to 12.5 percent, at a time when the lowest corporate rates in Europe were 30 percent and U.S. rates stood at 35 percent. Since 2004, Ireland also has offered a 20 percent tax credit on research and development.

But the true miracle came when, due to these policy changes, Ireland attracted capital and pools of ambitious young people from around the globe. By now, Ireland has one of the youngest populations in the Western world.



http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=ZDNjZjMyNTJjNjRmODY2YzZlNjkzZGRiOWQ0Y2IxNjk=
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Junior



Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye

PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

They copied thatcherism, but accepted the euro.
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thepeel



Joined: 08 Aug 2004

PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That seems to be the case, though I wouldn't have much long term faith in the Euro.

By the by, Alberta, the other booming area of the West, also did the same thing. The oil has helped greatly too, but it is interesting that the oil developments stop exactly at the Sask border... And the rest of the economy is growing quickly too.

Limited government, rule of law and free markets are the only paths to growth.


Last edited by thepeel on Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:27 am; edited 1 time in total
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Clutch Cargo



Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Location: Sim City 2005

PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

They speak English.
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ChuckECheese



Joined: 20 Jul 2006

PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Clutch Cargo wrote:
They speak English.


Funny English at that....
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Wangja



Joined: 17 May 2004
Location: Seoul, Yongsan

PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 3:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

BJWD wrote:
That seems to be the case, though I wouldn't have much long term faith in the Euro.



Why?
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mindmetoo



Joined: 02 Feb 2004

PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 4:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah I sure would love to move to Dublin. The weather is ideal if you don't like extremes in weather. Not too hot. Not too cold. Of course if global warming causes a change in the movement of warm water from the south atlantic to the north atlantic, Ireland will freeze over.
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thepeel



Joined: 08 Aug 2004

PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 4:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Because some nations, Italy for example, are not meeting their obligations regarding deficits and the like. This deficit spending has to financed somehow and this could cause inflation in Europe, witch coupled with the high unemployment and low growth, brings about that most horrible of monetary ills; stagflation. Before the Euro, nations were able to use monetary policy as a very powerful tool of manipulating the economy, no more. But the initial circumstance hasn't chanced, Italy is still different, and has different monetary needs than, say, Germany (for example). The differing inflation rates in the different regions will likely lead to populist pressure to either 1) kick out the offenders or 2) withdraw from the Euro.

To meet her requirements Italy must either raise taxes to finance the spending, which would lower productivity (making Italian goods more expensive to produce and less able to compete with China, increasing already high unemployment) and decrease FDI or cut spending, which (aside from being politically impossible) would likely lead to recession while the economy adjusts. In the past, Italy would have devalued the lira and be done with it, and now she cannot.

I suppose in the end, the problem is that the Euro lets nations avoid their "financial day of reckoning", by hiding their structural problems behind a vernier shiny European economic health, which will only ensure that when that day comes, it will be much more difficult to handle.
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