Ireland Has Been Declared A ‘Special Case’ By Angela Merkel – And These Figures Show Exactly Why, Writes Michael Taft

Ireland Has Been Declared A ‘Special Case’ By
Angela Merkel – And These Figures Show Exactly Why, Writes Michael Taft –
14 February 2013




Posted on February 14, 2013 by lucas2012infos | Leave a comment



WITH
CONSIDERABLE speculation about an impending deal on bank debt, with the
Taoiseach and the German Chancellor jointly stating that Ireland is
a ‘special case’, it is helpful to remind ourselves just how special a
case we are.

Eurostat, the EU Commission’s data agency, has calculated the cost of the banking crisis in
each EU country. The following focuses on the cost to general
government budgets. Ireland has really taken one for Team EU.



Yes, there’s wee Ireland up at the top, just edging out Germany for
the dubious title of spending the most on the banking crisis. €41
billion to date according to the Eurostat accounting data (this doesn’t
count the billions ploughed into the covered banks from our National
Pension Reserve Fund as this was not counted as a ‘cost’ to the General
Government budget).

Of course, this doesn’t give the best picture. What happens when we look at the cost as a percentage of GDP?



Ireland may not win football’s European Championship but when it
comes to banking debt we are Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester
United all rolled into one with Real Madrid for a bench. Germany may
have run Ireland close in the nominal amount of banking debt but when it
comes to a proportion of GDP, it is just pennies behind their sofa. For
Ireland, it’s the entire house.

Here’s another little stat to chew on. The European banking crisis
is just that – a European crisis. But as we know, this has not been
addressed at the European level. Rather, the cost has been delegated to
individual countries regardless of their size or ability to pay. For
instance:

• Ireland makes up 0.9 percent of the EU population
  
• The Irish economy makes up 1.2 percent of EU GDP
  

Ok, we’re small. So how much of the entire European banking debt have we paid?

• The Irish people have paid 42 percent of the total cost of the European banking crisis
  

We may be minnows when it comes to population and economic size, but when it comes to banking debt we are the whale in the pond.

One more breakdown. How much have countries paid per capita?



The European banking crisis to date has cost every individual in
Ireland nearly €9,000 each. The average throughout the EU is €192 per
capita. I really don’t know what you can say after that.

So, Ireland is a really, really special case. We require a really,
really special solution. The Government (and we must always remember
that this mess wasn’t created on their watch) has a real challenge in
the negotiations over bank debt. But there is a bottom-line here.

If any deal does not qualitatively alter these dismal statistics,
then it won’t be a deal worth applauding. The Government may be tempted
to return to the Irish people waving a sheet of paper claiming ‘a bank debt deal for our time’.

But if are still paying nearly €9,000 each while the remainder of the
EU pays only a fraction of that, then it is no deal at all; just a
re-arranging of euro notes – a lot of euro notes – on the decks of a
sunken ship.

Michael Taft is Research Officer with UNITE the Union; author of the political economy blog Notes on the Front where this article originally appeared; and a member of the TASC Economists Network.

Read more articles by Michael Taft here>


http://www.jhaines6.wordpress.com / link to original article


Thanks to: http://lucas2012infos.wordpress.com

Thanks again!