Market Bar & A Chat on Economy

I went out with mates last night and it was an enjoyable evening at Market Bar and even Itamar said that he would hold his farewell party at that place. It was my first attempt to sample foods at the place after 2 failed attempts. The food is great – tapas and some other foods that scream Spanish.

+ Market Bar

We talked about so many things. Paul and Itamar just got back from holiday in Brazil. The pics were superb. One thing led to another – and then I led them into talking about the credit crunch that’s faced, generally, by all nations across the world. I was called to talk about it for 2 reasons;

1) Lehman Brothers filed for protection against bankruptcy over the weekend, &
2) The attitude of Irish towards wealth and the sustainable economic activities post Celtic Tiger - whether or not it'll be able to survive the turmoil.

Yeah, you guess as much – I bored them to death. Hehe. But that is not the point. I was surprised, Lehman Brothers, fourth largest investment bank , would set the record as the largest bankruptcy in US history. It has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection listing bank debt of $613 billion, $155 billion in bond debt and assets worth $639 billion (Source: Wikipedia.com).

What sent shivers down my spine was – the spokesperson of Lehman Brothers appeared to be a little adamant to claim that the credit turmoil is being faced by all economies and all companies to certain extent, regardless of the size. They have regarded as their bold move to step to the plate and asked for protection should be seen as no sign of further damage that will take place but enough to urge companies to do honest self-assessment on the status they are in. Yes folks, what this tells us – it is not bed of roses ahead of us. No one can tell how bad the credit crunch is right now and how much worse will it be. But one thing for sure – be aware, be vigilant and be sensitive towards what’s happening.


And how this relates to Irish economy? Well, other than the general pain from credit crunch that is also being faced by Irish economy, I want to assess the economic situation of this country in general. History states a fact that Ireland was once one of Europe’s poorer countries with not much economic activities. There were hardly jobs for the people. Hence, this explains the larger Irish community in the US, in the period of emigration during the hard period. And to cut the story short, Celtic Tiger took place. Basically, the economy boomed tremendously in the 90s, that has never been seen before and slowed down in 2001 onwards.

Irish have been deprived of wealth for hundreds of years and then this period of 10 years is somewhat something they have been waiting for. Local Irish and emigrated Irish formed the force to take advantage of these local economic activities. But something is missing from the equation – sustainability of this whole thing to pass it on to next generation. This is apparent from the recent construction bust, the crazily priced houses, the high rate of rents, the generally more expensive things compared to other cities in Europe, high tax and not much going to the public services. I can go on and on here. The crux of the matter is sustainability. I spoke to an Irish friend recently, and he summed it up well – Irish were deprived of this for many years and now that greedy side of them comes out.

In a nutshell, what there is to take away from here is the idea of fair distribution of wealth across a nation in sustaining development - and especially true to help in difficult time like right now. Sustainable economic development is not only about recycling (as an example), but the ability to pass on the comfort and wealth to the people of next generations, without widening the parity gap. In the case of Irish economy, that is not really apparent to me especially in the domain of public/people. Let’s not get me started to talk about public service and health system. That is a whole different article. I am not certain if Ireland sees the current credit turmoil, but I am sure some would reflect "I wish I could've done it differently!"