Spre ce duce euro: Zimbabwe. Vine la rând Irlanda.

Situaţia Irlandei este asemănătoare cu cea a Greciei, cosmetizările nu au fost de folos:

Where the euro leads: Zimbabwe

Yesterday of course EU-poodle Ireland was hitting the world headlines for all the worst reasons: its membership of the euro and a series of cretinous EU-loving governments have led it to a banking wipe-out and a national deficit that will hit 32 percent of GDP this year. (At its worst, Britain's will hit barely more than ten percent.)

In other words, the Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, deserves a monument for the greatest screw-up in  history short of Zimbabwe. 
                                                                                                        
The reason it all went global yesterday was that Lenihan announced what he said were the final figures for just how much the banking disaster will cost. You can see details in my piece in the main part of the paper today, but international investors were supposed to believe the total figure of €50bn (£43.3bn).

And this in a country with just 1.8m people employed who are supposed to find the tax revenue to pay off all this debt. As the Lex column in the Financial Times puts it this morning, for the Irish just one thing is certain: 'Irish people who will die will go straight to heaven from now on, because right now they are caught between hell and purgatory.'

Mr Lenihan is trying to tell the country that now the truth is out, bad as it is. But is the whole truth out? What struck me yesterday are the voices to which the State-monopoly broadcasting system and ruling-class newspapers are willing to listen. They were rather too much on message about the truth being out at last.

I prefer to listen to Constantin Gurdgiev, an economist at Trinity College Dublin, who was interviewed yesterday by the Washington Post, the New York Times, USA Today, two German news organisations, one Austrian, one Dutch, and by Richard Quest at CNN. But, er, not by Irish broadcasting.

I'd say its because the highly-skilled Gurdgiev had earlier told them that his calculations for the final bail-out costs will be €67-70bn, not the €50bn the Government was trying to make the markets believe.

Forget purgatory. Ireland is going straight to hell.

€UROSEPTIC