Ireland’s economic crisis - the good, the bad and the ugly

This paper provides an overview of Ireland’s macroeconomic performance over the past decade. In addition, to presenting the underlying facts about the boom, bust and (currently limited) recovery, the paper also discusses some common fallacies and misrepresentations of economic events in Ireland. The paper concludes with some broader lessons from the Irish experience for Eurozone economic policy and some observations on the role that EMU and the ECB have played in Ireland’s crisis.