Eoghan Harris was a Irish Christian Republican, an atheist Republican, a marxist one, just a marxist, a FG supporter, a FF supporter, a Ulster Unionist, and God only knows what now.

People like him, Barroso included have no beliefs just self interest. Barroso is a cancer in European politics.

In a small open economy like greece or ireland, the fiscal multiplier is much less than one, meaning the benefit to the economy from the stimulus is less than the cost of borrowing the stimulus money. stimulus can work in large economies like the US since it is big enough to have a fiscal multiplier ratio greater than 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_multiplier

Sorry Tim, I think you are wrong, however I must admit that there are compelling arguments on both sides of this debate. One thing though, one can only cut from, and tax out, so much before the ‘economy’ ceases to exist. Nobody is even discussing stimuli here. Maybe I am wrong. Thanks anyway

You are entitled to your opinion, however let me ask you a simple question, if the government spends a billion in the economy, do you think that it results in them getting more than a billion back in extra taxes, revenue and reduced unemployment?

The stimulus needs to be on a Euro zone scale and on a western world scale as well. Free market capitalism is just international gombeenism, which in reality is just about letting the connected rob without oversight has broken the west.

Your right Tim about broad stimulus, but focused long term investment can have significant return for small states as well. Spending most of the recent 2 billion announcement on roads in Wexford, as opposed to picking out a couple hundred high potential SME”s from across the country and backing them to the hilt to become mid sized, performing exporters, long lasting providers of jobs and wealth to the country as opposed to short jobs.

As for Barroso in Greece. The Greeks for all their screwed way of business and woeful tax collection have cut their economy to the bone, yet it is not enough. Like here, you cannot cut ur way out of debt, u can only grow or devalue out of it. They need to leave the Euro immediately, be helped in the exit and recovery, devalue and grow. The EU/ECB should use this to develop a game plan where countries like ourselves, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and quiet a few others can move out. This will happen either way.

The Euro can survive with 7-10 countries max, it cannot survive with so many states that have different economic needs, different business cultures, etc etc etc etc.

You are probably right. I bow to your superior knowledge in this subject. Perhaps the immediate return would not be 100% or more. That depends on the marginal propensity to save and consume. But I think there is an emotional factor that is harder to quantify. The comfort from an improvement in income for some may actually encourage them to withdraw savings and spend on purchases they had decided to delay. I think eventually the whole economy could grow as a result and thus give the govt a positive return.It depends on the time frame does it not?

Amen !!

Ho him, more xenophobic and entirely inaccurate ranting from this lovely gentleman. If he were to actually objectively research his opinions, he would find that there is no masterplan for German domination of Europe. In fact, the opposite is true. There is growing support by businessmen, opposition and members of Merkel’s own government to discontinue support of bail-out problems and let the PIIGS nations solve their problems without the support of German taxpayers. Be careful what you wish for, Germany might grant those wishes sooner than you think.

The Germans and a few others need to leave the Euro, let the currency devalue overnight, and then it can break up in time. 5-6 countries having a new Northern Euro, with Belgium and France in as weights on it getting too strong. It’s what should have been done in the first place.

The Euro crisis is about to get several magnitudes worse as Italy and Spain are going to need bailouts this summer. France may be next in line, Germany is not looking like such a long term certainty either, given the rotten state of its highly leveraged banks.

Whatever the logic or reasoning, for good or bad etc but you are certainly right in stating that the Euro will be recorded in history as an epic failure.

No doubt there is an element in Germany and Brussels that want to use this crisis, to put their mark and control on the continent, naturally they see this as a positive for all but as even many leading Germans have pointed out, it entails Germany becoming the controlling force on the continent, the centre of an economic empire and that that will only create massive division in Europe long term.

The EU/ECB/Berlin haven’t even remotely the finance to resolve the Italian debt crisis, never mind the rest. Italy – with its stable of great export businesses, its massive savings, its balanced books but the Euro is too strong for it so it is failing. Italy would do really well outside of the Euro, it will stagnate for a generation within it. Time to bite the bullet and break the curency up in to smaller parts, this will take a global effort to do it. The alternative is that we let it fester and every country from Germany to Greece goes bankrupt.

Absolutely. What many people misinterpret is that German business and German politics are very far from being unified under Merkel’s agenda, and see expansion of Germany’s power. In the EU as a disastrous policy. The media doesn’t help as national hatred always makes for a good story. People seem to forget than, when Germany was reunified post-1989, all industry in the former East crumbled when in competition with Western and International firms, and the result was that the new Germany was obliged to look after the welfare of 30 million new and needy citizens. The last twenty years have been spent under ( lighter ) austerity measures to balance out the deficit caused by this. The majority of Germans consider Germany to be already in control of too many people. They don’t to to control more of Europe, they want to look after and protect their own, and not have the headache of managing the problems of other nations. Sadly, this is at odds with Merkel’s Pro-European policies. Germany doesn’t particularly care about the wellbeing of the Irish, but this swings both ways; they have no interest in dominating or controlling Ireland, despite what the ill-informed pot-stirrers shout.