Sidewinder, I think we’d have managed to have stupidly low interest rates all by ourselves. Everone else with an independent central bank did - England, Australia, China, India, CEE countries.
While the Irish central bank might like to kid itself that it would have acted to stop asset bubbles in residential and commercial property, the reality of a strong Punt killing exports to the UK, the US and Europe would have dissuaded them and so we would have ended up with stupidly low interest rates like everyone else, but the additional costs of currency hedges and conversions.
Euro interest rates are still at least 1% too low for ireland (we’re still borrowing over a billion a week after all) - if we were outside of the euro, you could add another few percent ‘history of being financially reckless’ interest premium on there as well (at least) - how would comical and co manage to spin mortgage rates bordering on two digits?
Why anyone thinks a government who couldn’t manage the economy via fiscal policy and regulation could manage it via monetary policy (and when historical precedent is against it) i can’t understand - if the EU had managed overall fiscal balance (leaving individual tax/spend policies to the irish gov) and banking regulation for the last decade, there’d be no problem now.
Absolutely, so until they either learn to do their jobs, or the public learns to elect people who can, it’s best the irish gov gets as few economic controls as possible.
I suppose it depends on your general outlook on these things.
I think Irish people, and Irish politicians, won’t grow up and stop acting like greedy children until they are forced to. I think making this country grow up is a good thing.
I think the best way to encourage responsible behaviour in future, is to make people take the rap for their mistakes. Actions have consequences.
We can keep looking for external agencies (London, Brussels, US FDI…)to run our affairs for us, we’ll never grow up and we’ll keep making the same mistakes. Or we can learn to behave ourselves.
If we keep dodging the responsibility to take control of our own affairs, then our much-vaunted independence is a sham and the entire existence of the southern state is a farce.