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November 22, 2010

Ireland Requests Massive EU/IMF Bailout
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Residents in Ireland are bracing for another round of sweeping budget
cuts after the Irish government announced it was seeking a massive
bailout for the country’s banks from the European Union and
International Monetary Fund. Bloomberg reports Ireland will request
about $130 billion, about 60 percent of the size of its economy. The
Irish bailout dwarfs the size of the Greek bailout in May. Earlier
today, the Green Party threatened to withdraw from the Irish coalition
government unless Prime Minister Brian Cowen agrees to hold an early
national election in January. On Saturday, one of Ireland’s biggest
trade unions warned that the nation was on the brink of civil unrest if
government officials imposed further cuts to the public sector.
Residents of Dublin have already taken to the streets to oppose the bank
bailout.

Robert Connelly: "This is bad for all Europeans. All ordinary European
people, because if they can do this here in Ireland, then they can move
to other countries. The IMF will systematically move to other countries
in Europe and impose stringent cuts, impose privatisation, impose things
that ordinary people do not want across these countries and people will
have no democratic mandate to change that."



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