Douglas Carswell's Blog

Ireland faces a Hobson's choice

It looks to me as though Irish voters have been offered a choice between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.  

Apart from fringe parties, those standing for office do not appear to be advocating any radical shift in economic policy.  For all the "blame game" being played out between them, the Fianna Fail - Fine Gael - Labour consensus precludes Dublin from contemplating the only two things that will allow Ireland to recover; default on her debts and decouple from the Euro.

Yet politics cannot defy mathematics forever.  Nor can political will defeat the brutal facts of compound interest rates.  Despite my efforts to prevent it, Ireland today is even deeper in debt than she was when she was bailed out had yet more high interest loans pressed upon her. 

Ireland will eventually have to default and decouple whoever wins office.  As happened when Britain spectacularly crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, politicians eventually have to adjust to economic reality.  The danger comes from all the things they do to try to ward off that moment. 

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