On Thu, 27 May 2010 09:02:34 -0700 (PDT), allantracy
wrote:

Over in Ireland, they've already reached the point of closure
proposals.


The poor Irish. They were the first Euro zone country to hit severe
problems as a result of the credit crunch.

Their courageous government brought in a severe austerity programme
with massive cuts in public spending and huge rises in taxes. This
stabilised their economy which is just seeing a return to growth and
beginning to climb out of recession.

Then along came Greece, whose economy was in an even worse state. But
the Greek government did almost nothing, continued to borrow more and
more, and eventually got to the point of no return.

Then the whole of the Euro zone got together and gave Greece a very
generous bail-out package.

Poor Ireland, who had already gone through hell to put their own
economy back into shape, could only look on in amazement as Greece got
major hand-outs from other Euro member states. Ireland got no help at
all.

And, to add insult to injury, Ireland had to pay some of the bill to
bail out Greece!


The joys of Euro membership ...