Doug wrote:
> Wolf himself says:
>
> >Ireland has prospered by offering investors a stable, profitable,
> >English-speaking base for production aimed at the EU market.
>
> How many of those are there?
>
>
The IMF would say that any developing country could be another Ireland if it only got its policies in order. (Unless you're referring to the "English-speaking" part, which I don't think was necessarily Wolf's main point.) So, Doug, why can't Mexico get rich like Ireland can?
You can point to Ireland's uniqueness as a participant in a big, powerful currency area; but then the policy implication would be to "dollarize" Latin America, like the right-wingers say.
So why should developing countries try anything risky, like a debtors' cartel, when prudent policies and maybe a currency union with the local big boy could give them 10 percent growth rates like Ireland? (Which is now richer than its former colonial ruler, the UK.)
Seth