Where exactly is the economic time bomb?

IRELAND is surviving on international credit. It seems strange businesses find it difficult to get a slice of that credit.

Standard & Poors (S&P) have offices in 23 countries and a history that dates back 150 years.

Yet I had never heard of them until the economic tsunami crashed onto our shores.

We learned (August 25) that S&P have downgraded Ireland’s long-term sovereign credit rating from AA to AA minus. Some economists may guess that further downgrades are possible. Such predictions make astrology look respectable.

This contrasts with the news report (August 18) that the NTMA has already met 99% of our borrowing target for 2010 and has secured funding up to the second quarter of next year.

Next day, Newsweek ranked Ireland 17th in the world’s economies and hailed Brian Cowen as a “fiscal taskmaster”. Are we listening to tunes from different hymn sheets? Is the silly season in the newsrooms wheezing to a stop? Did they inflate the story? Where is the time bomb? Is it really ticking?

Michael Mernagh

Raheens

Carrigaline

Co Cork