Economy

Exactly which corner have we turned Mr Lenihan? During last December's budget speech Brian Lenihan said that the worst was over.

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.

Warnings of a currency war dominated the summit of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington this weekend. The cooperation between global politicians, like when the economy plummeted in 2008, is dissolving. Many governments are devaluing their currencies in order to increase exports, thereby increasing contradictions and risking new economic downturns. The meeting, however, ended in a fiasco, with a statement void of content the only result. Below are two articles, on the world economy and on the currency wars.

Towards a 24 hour all-European general strike!

Following the initiative of Joe Higgins and the other left Members of the European Parliament to organise a European Week of Action in June against the cuts and bank bailouts, the idea of the need for a continent-wide response from workers to the crisis has taken a firmer hold with the call by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) for a day of protest on 29 September.

UCD economist, Morgan Kelly, was pilloried by the establishment back in May when he said it was no longer a case of whether Ireland would go bankrupt but when.

Who do you think was the biggest loss making financial institution in the world last year? Lehman Brothers? AIG? Citibank? No, it was not a major bank in a major world economy - it was a relatively small developers' bank in Ireland - Anglo Irish Bank. What's more, Anglo Irish Bank is likely to be the biggest loss maker again this year!

The decision of the rating agency, Standard and Poor’s, to downgrade the credit rating of Ireland from AA to AA- was met with hypocritical gnashing of teeth by Irish establishment figures. The National Treasury Management Agency rushed to criticise S&P, saying that their approach was "flawed". Minster of State, Dara Calleary declared that they used a "very negative analysis".

The government, the media and various economists all trumpeted recently released figures that apparently show that the Irish economy came out of recession in the first three months of 2010. However for the unemployed, workers and their families this miraculous recovery has by passed them.

"The news of Eircom's owners' intention to shed at least a further 1,300 jobs on top of the similar amount of voluntary redundancies it has already sought and almost achieved shatters the government guff that we are embarking on an economic recovery".

According to some Greek protesters Ireland is not like Greece - one banner on a demonstration read, “This is not Ireland, we will fight”. Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, says the same but from a different stand point. He keeps repeating that Ireland is not like Greece in the hope that such an economic collapse won't happen here, precisely because he is afraid of a similar revolt of the Irish working class.