According to Wikipedia, between 1995 and 2000, the long-dormant Irish economy took off, expanding by a startling 9.4 percent. There was a building boom; roads were widened to accommodate more traffic; newly confident people started buying things they had long denied themselves, including bigger and nicer houses, which, it turns out, many could not afford.
Even after 2000 when the Irish economy continued to grow at an average rate of 5.9 percent, still well above the American average, confidence in the economy remained high. By 2008, a dramatic reversal had occurred with gross domestic product contracting by 14 percent. Unemployment levels rose to 14 percent by 2011 and 15 percent the following year.
The reasons are familiar to Americans. Mostly it was a property bubble. Banks approved loans for people who could not handle big mortgages, which led to a recession, not unlike the one experienced in the United States.
As a much smaller country, Ireland’s comeback has progressed faster than in America, where real unemployment is much higher than last month’s misleading Labor Department announcement of 5.0 percent.
| Being smaller isn't the only reason... |
Emerging from a joint European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout program, Ireland’s growth rate stood at a respectable 4.8 percent in 2014, declining slightly to 3.5 percent last year, but still better than any EU country.
While much credit belongs to the political leadership that has bitten the bullet and imposed austerity on government spending programs, causing howls from the left, and to the resilient Irish people who are experienced when it comes to suffering, foreign investment has also played a major role. Much of that investment has been driven by the anti-business tax policies imposed on corporations by the U.S. government, prompting many U.S. businesses to seek tax relief overseas.
| And there you go... |
Something to be learnt here possibly.