The nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank is an indication of the abject failure of the Fianna Fail and Green government to deal with the banking crisis, but also that the crisis has reached a new and dangerous level. In the wake of the nationalisation, the shares of the two main banks, Allied Irish Bank (AIB) and Bank of Ireland (B of I), plummeted.
With interest rates on Irish bonds hovering around 7%, it is clear that financial markets are increasingly pricing in a high chance of Ireland "going bust". In this article, socialistparty.net traces the prospects for Irish state insolvency, the deepening economic crisis and the consequences for the workers' movement.
It's now almost three years since European Commission President Barroso announced "a silent revolution in terms of stronger economic governance by small steps". This has meant using the economic crisis to impose a model of authoritarian neo-liberalism in Europe.
