Ireland Will Apply for Bailout Package
The NYT notes this morning:
Ireland Will Apply for Bailout Package
Irish finance minister Brian Lenihan confirmed today that
Ireland had formally applied to Europe and the International
Monetary Fund for a bailout package.He would not give an exact figure but said the amount would
be in the tens of billions of euros and that the final figure
was still subject to further negotiations.
This is a shame. Ireland should go bankrupt. A generation of debt peonage will make Ireland, the EU or the Euro weaker rather then stronger. The consequences of irresponsible behavior are better borne by the irresponsible speculator rather then Irish children who like generations of Irish before them will simply be forced to vote with there feet and find greener pastures eleswhere.
“but said the amount would be in the tens of billions of euros”
That was early this morning. Now the figure is up to 120 billion euros ($164 billion).
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-21/ireland-set-to-receive-120-billion-euro-rescue-fund-times-says.html
Stay tuned.
The IMF/EU conditions very likely involve new budget measures. Two independent members of the parliamentary coalition have said that they won’t support the December budget unless it has opposition support, and the opposition has said it wants immediate elections – that is to say, before the budget. So, while the IMF/EU conditions have not been made public, very likely we now face a situation that makes actual delivery of the aid problematic. Since the point to announcing before market opening today was to get rid of “problematic”, this is a problem.