>>>Their low corporation tax rates brought in a lot of foreign companies. My nephew (from France) works there for Lenovo.
>>>
>>>Its a problem for countries outside the European core (which I would say is pretty firmly centres on North Eastern France and the Rhine). They need to be able to attract business to invest in them and low tx rates is an obvious solution. The Irish economy was pretty successful. Its the banks that have pulled it down so far and so quickly.
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>>Full ACK. Do you have any idea why they opted for a complete bank bail-out ?
>
>Its a mystery to me. Some leverage applied somewhere but we'll never know. It seems to me that the same people who created the problem are still in the driving seat and lessons have not really been learned.
>
>Should have been defaults and bust banks all round. Investment need to be regarded as a risk. You may win but but may lose and these bail outs are removing from the banks the element of risk so they will learn nothing.

Exactly. Capitalist profits, socialized losses.