Debt relief for highly indebted rich countries could (should? is?) also be considered fiscal stimulus. In Ireland, as in other countries, there is, I believe, a mistaken emphasis on the money transmission mechanism - the banks - and not nearly enough emphasis on the economy - the consumers. Hence we will have some 50 bn in debt created for the banks bad bed for a small proportion of the economy (developers and speculators - the formerly rich). I still am not convinced that a NAMA for the people is a good or workable idea, but 50 bn would be more than a third of the outstanding mortgage debt.
If we left the euro our nua punt would be worth diddle squat as we try and rush to the bottom with all the other new lira, drachma’s etc.
There is no easy pain free way out of this.
“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”
