My point about Ireland is that they have full-on austerioty but without any of the debt reduction it was supposed to dleiver. And this is why the markets have priced Irish debt as they have.

One THIRD of Irish debt is due to bailing our Anglo Irish Bank. WIth Anglo Irish bail out their debt is 18% without it would be 12%.

The Irish have been lied to. They are suffering austerity for nothing except bailing out a useless but politically connected bank. That is why Krugman's charts look the way they do. That plus the markets know fuill well what the banks won't say in public – that Ireland has a vast submerged iceberg of off-balance sheet debt hiding in SIV's

I have no problem with either stimulus or austerity as policies. Both can have their merits, both can achieve certain ends. My argument is that we have had neither.

In the countries which have incurred massive debts like the US and UK very little of that spending has stimulated anything at all. Because the vast bulk of the money was funelled straight into the banks where it has stayed to this day. Zero stimulus effect.

In countries which have embraced austerity like Ireland there has been zero debt reduction because faster than any money is saved by pillaging public spending, more debt is taken on bailing out banks like Anglo.

That is my argument.

What I have heard from BOTH sides of the almost entirely spurious austerity/stimulus debate is worthless self serving cant. Neither side is doing what it claims it is doing. Both sides are in fact saving their banks at the puiblic's expense, just disguising the fact in different failed ways.

Spain does have fewer and lesser debts than Ireland. It is also less in the spotlight of those seeking profit. Spain will get its turn. Ireland has bigger more pressing debts and is therefore a lot closer to the edge.

Where I agree with him is in questioning what good being compliant has done the Irish. They should riot and refuse. That would bring concessions from the EU and ECB.