A leaky punt
IT WAS an unkind banker who said this week that Ireland was saved from being a Third-World economy only by force of geography. Can this be the country which so recently enjoyed a stroke of economic lucky equivalent to winning the Sweep? The Irish economy, in proportion to its size, gained more from the Common Agri- cultural Policy — so the British Treasury calculated — than the United Kingdom from North Sea oil. Britain at least has a large portfolio of overseas investments to show for its windfall. Ireland, similarly placed, put on exchange controls. Its win- nings were dissipated in domestic inflation, and the CAP is failing faster than the oil. The textbook cure now would be an IMF credit package, coupled with a stern fiscal policies and a stiff devaluation of the punt. Can another solution now be suggesting itself to Charles Haughey's chancing mind? Proportionately, his country's foreign debts are as bad as Mexico's — so how about taking the can't pay, won't pay line from Brazil?
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