Something I was meaning to post a long time ago…

"once you are part of a larger currency union, like EMU,
none of these signals are picked up because you have no currency, no
domestic interest rates and no real balance of payments to worry about.

This is why New York City was declared bankrupt in 1975, simply
because no one appreciated its level of delinquency until it was too
late. Like Ireland today, there were no typical warning signs"

New York had the Federal Government to ball it out - would the EU do the same
for us, if so, at what price? Would we get hit worse then, say Japan…

"Even when the domestic credit economy collapsed, at least
manufacturing - which was controlled by Japanese executives - continued
to export. We don’t have a domestic manufacturing industry. The second
crucial difference is that we do not have a real central bank. If
things went pear-shaped here, it is highly likely that our interest
rates would be rising not falling.

This is because Germany
operates in a different economic cycle to us. No country in the world
has ever experienced a property meltdown that was not cushioned by
falling or possibly zero interest rates".

…taken from Sunday Business Post articles,
by David McWilliams - We all contribute to the
rip-off (28/11/2005) and Ireland’s kamikaze capitalism (12/03/2006) - some how I actually remembered both, well,
to be correct, in my mind they were sound bites from one article.