Ireland inc a TRILLION euro in debt....

[well_known_grouse]

1 trillion in debt -collectively - you would think that would have been the lead item on the News today - what will take to get folks to sit up and take this in?

Well typing away as I am from a snowbound(until 1 hour ago) hideway up the side of Mount Leinster - the whole conversation here and over at other places has an air of total unreality about it - Do people actually realise the seriousness of the situation the whole country is in?
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congratulations on this post.. its the best piece of honesty and grounding in reality for those who are interested in reading it closely.
no they dont realise whats going on.. its almost like allowing the rest of the vegetables to be stolen from under our noses while the blight rotted the spuds for tomorrows dinner
time to get real, accept lower wages, force down prices by not paying over the odds, hand back the keys and live in trees if necessary, lower the bar and gratiously accept a new europe. I spoke to a veterinarian recently who left her job which paid "get by wages" on a farm in estonia to work as a labourer on a farm here i.e following the celtic tiger. now she would willingly return to the cushy number at home to get out of this Vladimir Putin type society and get back to a bit of the simple life in her beloved Estonia, away from the money grabbing GP's, Veterinarians, Consultants, Architects, Etate Agents, Solicitors, Lawyers, Senior Council, and so on

[patslatt]

A nice scary piece in the Times today by Brian Lucey and Constantin Gurdgiev....
Problems in real economy dwarf those of bank sector - The Irish Times - Tue, Feb 03, 2009


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FT.com / Comment / Opinion - Why we should expect low growth amid debt discusses how total debt levels depress economic growth. These economists' research shows that internationally a debt to GDP ratio greater than 90% depresses economic growth,including both public and private sector debt.

Given that Ireland's GDP is about 20% less than its GNI and GNP,add about 20% to the debt to GDP ratio for international comparisons. Clearly,Ireland's debt could prove disastrous in a period of prolonged deflation or very slow growth as the value of debt in real terms could rise even as wages fall.