Neoliberal guru Friedman would find Ireland’s financial soap opera a bit of a giggle

MILTON Friedman, the architect of the current version of capitalism foisted on the world, must be looking down from wherever he is spending his afterlife and cracking a wry smile at the goings on in Ireland.

If ever he needed demonstrative proof that his economic model was bulletproof, then the financial soap opera being played out here is as close as he will get. He created a model that benefits the elite using the hard work of the majority and, when endangered, allows state intervention to prop it up without any sense of irony.

Each time a call is made to place higher taxes on the rich, the wagons are circled by the business establishment and their political lapdogs.