Ireland Challenged To Build On Success

Interesting article in todays Washington Post about Irelands economic success. One very interesting point it raised which I was unaware of is the fact that owners of two of the largest real estate firms decided to sell out in the last two weeks.

Surely an indicator that the bubble,whilst not quite at bursting point, is not so bubbly anymore.

The irony of the Irish economic miracle is surely not lost on the countries of Western Europe that poured billions of dollars into their poor, struggling neighbor to help integrate it into the much wealthier European Union.

In one respect it was a tremendous success, creating the continent's fastest-growing and most productive economy.

But in another, Ireland's success represents a profound embarrassment for the European establishment. In terms of the markets for its products and the source of its investment capital, Ireland is much more heavily oriented toward the United States -- and euro holdout England -- than it is to the countries of Western Europe. With its low tax rates and flexible labor markets, its economic model and business culture are "more Boston than Berlin," as the saying goes here. And although Ireland's booming economy now attracts tens of thousands of ambitious young immigrants each year, the vast majority come from the fast-growing states of Eastern Europe rather than high-unemployment states of Western Europe.