The Celtic Tiger is well and truly dead

Fintan O'Toole notes the demise of the 'Celtic Tiger', i.e. the Irish economic boom. "Ever since the slump that followed the attacks on the US in September 2001, the classic Irish boom has been a thing of the past. If most of us haven't noticed, it's because the money has been flowing in regardless. The boom in exports was replaced by two related booms - in property prices and construction, and in consumer spending. ... This has created an American-style economy in which people borrow money to buy more stuff and economic growth becomes dependent on the insatiable appetites of consumers. If the real boom of the 1990s and early 2000s was about us importing American capital and exporting American products, the second boom has been, logically enough, about us becoming American consumers. We've replaced the public debt of the 1980s with private debt."

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