Got this off an Irish Times article discussing what will effect Ireland economicly in the near future. I'm interested in his perception of the US in the following quote.
Of the three entities whose gravitational pull most affects Ireland’s orbit, the US appears most stationary. For all the heat generated by its polarising politics and the breast-beating of the country’s China-obsessed declinists, north America’s 236-year-old union is more stable and predictable than those to our east. An illustration of this is that it makes little real difference to Ireland, or indeed Europe more widely, who wins next week’s US presidential election because neither candidate seeks to change relations with our part of the world.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/1102/1224326034248.htmlI remember Ireland was constantly under political attack for following a US free market model for their economy during the Celtic Tiger. Now they're getting "I told you so's" everywhere. I spoke with somebody of Irish background (not an expert) and he said the problem was they didn't reinvest anything back into the infrastructure. I believe personally that they just didn't have any restraints on spending with there new found wealth. I certainly hope that Ireland doesn't swing to the left. I watched a Irish talk show about a year ago where guests discussed how best to get Ireland back on its feet. Crazy SOBs in the audience wanted to arrest and take the wealthiest Irish peoples money and nobody acted aghast....WTF!
