Apparently Ireland imports far more than it exports from the UK i.e. it runs a balance of payments deficit with the UK. A commenter (Yoganmahew, a longstanding contributor on financial matters to both thepropertypin.com and askaboutmoney.com), highlighted this interesting fact over on Constantin Gurdgiev’s blog. He was discussing Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s debt deflation article on the state of the Irish economy, discussed on Slugger here. In the same article Constantin, in a rebuttal of the Eurosceptic line taken by Ambrose, highlights some of the benefits of Euro membership – effectively arguing Ireland would be in a much worse state outside of the Euro.
While Sterling’s fall causes much grinding of teeth and wailing among exporters to the UK and retailers, it is – as shoppers making the weekly exodus to Newry know – beneficial for the rest of us.
No bio, some books worth reading – The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves – Matt Ridley .
Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance -Nouriel Roubini, Stephen Mihm