So if Ireland did start to think that leaving the Euro could actually be beneficial, unthinkable a little while ago when Euro seemed all pluses, it would not be so hard to imagine a public demand developing for just such an outcome. Instead of looking like failure it might start to look like a sane form of resistance.

The info wars would start in earnest if leaving the Euro ever started to be seen as a viable policy option instead of a form of unspecified and somehow unimaginable disaster for the country cut adrift. The bogyman of default and leaving the Euro would quickly lose its power to frighten the population and then what would happen.?

I don't think that's true. It would be a disaster for the remaining Euro countries, as everyone would realize it's a house of cards, but for the countries that leave the Euro, they'd be free to start rebuilding their economies without the limiting restrictions on deficit spending, which is the only way for any country to begin climbing out of the hole they're in.

Countries like the US & UK, which control their own currencies, don't have to borrow to spend in their own countries (despite what they'd have you believe — they're creating money out of thin air for QE2.)

Right now the govt is the employer of last resort. If you control your own currency you can spend to create jobs, right now, to start rebuilding by creating a demand for goods & services. The only barriers are political.

Obama won't do it, because neo-liberals use unemployment to fight inflation, which is silly, but enables them to exert enormous amount of power over their own citizens, which is kind of the point. If you have the power you can do anything.

Euro zone countries can't spend now, because they have to borrow from someone to do so, and at usurious interest rates. But if Ireland leaves the Euro, it can spend to create jobs & begin recovery.

And if Ireland does so, and is seen to be making any progress at all, others will follow suit. Again, the barriers are political, and the decision to leave the Euro would be fought tooth & nail by the politicians who the banks control, but it can be done.

The Quiet Coup

" The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time. "

The Quiet Coup by Simon Johnson.

yes, that's what Merkel has pushed for and seems to have got. Rattled the bond holders cage.

I'm interested to hear more of your thinking on the euro. If you don't mind telling.

As for Ireland, it seems to me that they best hit rock bottom ASAP so the rebuilding can begin ASAP. First step should be leaving the Euro. Once the first country leaves, the dominoes will begin to fall one by one. I hope.

There are a few crunch/tipping points which fool us in to believing that these things can play out on time scales we are accustomed to. However inevitable the retreat is these brief points are just the explosions – the shells flying through the air take months to arrive and the advance of the tanks years.

jms452

Yours truly, Unclear