{"id":511,"date":"2014-04-01T15:57:35","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T15:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicirelandbank.com\/?p=511"},"modified":"2022-10-10T09:47:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T09:47:30","slug":"should-ireland-exit-the-euro-zone-prof-ray-kinsella-may-20-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/republicirelandbank.com\/?p=511","title":{"rendered":"Should Ireland exit the euro zone? Prof. Ray Kinsella – May 20, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read full article on<\/span> Irish Examiner Website<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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THERE are three reasons why a managed exit by Ireland from the eurozone is the most urgent economic priority. But first consider this reality.<\/p>\n

The German finance minister, under whom the euro was launched, Oskar Lafontaine, earlier this month called for its break-up. He asserted \u201cthe current policy is leading to disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was referring, in particular, to the impact of eurozone polices on peripheral countries. But much closer to the centre, France \u2014 whose credit rating was downgraded late last year \u2014 is now deeply mired in a second recession, with no obvious way forward. The Economist has called France \u201cthe time-bomb at the heart of Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the late summer of 2010, I argued in these pages and elsewhere that if Ireland did not change course, matters would be taken out of the government\u2019s hands. They were. The \u201cinconceivable\u201d happened. The \u201cinconceivable\u201d may be happening again.<\/p>\n

The austerity doctrine imposed the burden of adjustment to the post-2008 economic collapse on the labour market. It is an indefensible misuse of economics that the eurozone \u201cauthorities\u201d should seek stability on the back of tens of millions of unemployed \u2014 this month\u2019s eurozone unemployment figures reached yet another record.<\/p>\n

It is equally indefensible that, within an economic epoch characterised by intellectual capital and innovation, youth unemployment should now stand at an average of 25% \u2014 and more than double this in some of the peripheral countries which are most in need of their intellectual capital and capabilities.<\/p>\n

At this stage in the present recessionary cycle, there is no sense in what is being done to the economy \u2014 and what is being planned for forthcoming budgets. After five austerity budgets the deficit has been reduced, at a terrible cost, and with much further to go. The country has been brought to the brink just to impose further cuts of \u20ac300m \u2014 of which half is slated to come from health including disability services that are already bleeding.<\/p>\n

Read full article on<\/span>\u00a0Irish Examiner Website<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no longer any appetite for the argument that only further integration will solve this crisis. This is a self-serving argument and finds no resonance among national populations. There is always a danger to democracy when the elite \u2014 the \u2018authorities\u2019 \u2014 become semi-detached from the beliefs of the people from whom they get their legitimacy. Riot control is a poor and an obdurate response to the reality that the \u2018authorities\u2019 have lost the argument.<\/p>\n

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