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Sat 07 Jul 2010Was it really a Celtic Tiger - or a US tiger caged in a Celtic zoo?
SOCIETY:Celtic Tiger in Collapse: Explaining the Weaknesses of the Irish ModelBy Peadar Kirby Palgrave Macmillan, 288pp. £19.99
MANY YEARS ago the late Harry Chapin had a hit with a song, the name of which escapes me, but which contained the lines; “There’s no need to see things any other way than the way things always have been seen”. In a sense these sentiments capture the orthodoxy of the mainstream economists’ analysis of the current crisis – suffer the pain of cutbacks and economic growth will return through increased exports. It is a case of a mid course correction rather than a need for a fundamental change in direction. In due course it will be a return to business as usual.
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