This parallel universe could transform our future
This would be a momentous development and should warrant a series of special events.
I would pick a Friday that corresponds with a bank holiday Monday so that those people who have worked through the Siberian salt mine that is the Irish economy can be given a proper and extended break in thanks for their contributions to our recovery.
A day in early summer would be best so that all of us can get a rest and enjoy the long evenings that bless this country for almost six months of the year. The special guest would be Frau Merkel. We’d get her in to Shannon Airport on the Friday afternoon.
After full military honours she would be whisked away into deepest Co Clare. This will be no quick photo-op with a couple of smiles and a fast getaway. No, instead she would have to commit to two full but informal days.
After a saunter around the Cliffs of Moher we’ll hit some of the real pubs that have avoided the Paddy Whackery you now find in so many so-called Irish pubs abroad. She’ll find a nice snug to throw back good stout, some Cork Dry Gin or fresh water depending on her choice of tipple.
A feed of that beef which regularly wins global meat competitions in Germany would be on the menu afterwards, or some of the freshest fish from the Atlantic. After all that, the Kilfenora Ceilí Band would be introduced to the Chancellor before the night would begin properly.
On Sunday morning, a smiling but tired German leader will be accompanied to her ECJ319 (the Airbus equivalent of Air Force One) and waved off from a piece of the eurozone that gives her bragging rights with global leaders. Instead of slopping around in oceans of valueless money, Ireland has chiselled out an economy that is matching German soil for efficiency and competitiveness.
Instead of loping around looking for handouts, Ireland has stopped spending what it does not earn. Its people live conservative but fruitful lives. Houses are considered homes and not investments. Holidays happen once a year and more only if the savings are there.
The Government is once again respected in global markets and rolls out bonds that have an Irish harp but a Eurobond banner that attract yields not much outside those of core German bonds. Global companies boast about Irish facilities that have loyal and progressive employees with an international outlook on business and life.
We pay our taxes and have a financial system incapable of being outsized relative to the scale of the national economy. That banking system has one purpose only — to provide credit in a cautious manner to Irish people and industry. Bank managers are a cross between Alan Sugar and Captain Mainwaring, the Dad’s Army character who believed debt was evil.
Just how bad a place would that be to inhabit? The German Finance Minister was quoted last week as saying the financial crisis was a function of greedy demand for loans and a view that high economic growth was always to be pursued.
He argues for an alternative system that is more subdued (but sustainable) in its annual growth rates and a related credit system.
This flies in the face of recent Anglo-American norms and it asks us, who physically and culturally live between London and New York, to think and live in a different way. It is a fascinating and historic moment in out national psyche.
Joe Gill is director of research with Bloxham Stockbrokers
