Tag Archives: Middle Class

noonan

 

So we were fortunate that we had colleagues in Europe that were prepared to support us. We were fortunate that we had the IMF that were prepared to support us because if we didn’t have those lenders of last resort everything that we have done over the last four years or so would have to be done in one fell swoop, in one budget where the living standards of everybody in the country would’ve been cut by about 60%. And if you want to see what happened elsewhere, have a look at Iceland where 40% of personal savings were wiped out.

Have a look at Argentina who defaulted twice in the last twenty years or so. They still can’t access money in the international markets and at each default it got so bad that middle class decent people who lost their jobs were searching in dustbins to get food to feed their families. So we were lucky we had our lenders of last resort.

 

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan speaking at the afternoon session of the Fine Gael national conference in Limerick on Saturday.

Watch the full speech here (Scroll to around the 1:51 mark)

Apologies for the sound quality.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuKSAd3IPCA

Substitute teacher Economics editor Dan O’Brien heralds a new series on the “squeezed middle” starting in tomorrow’s paper.

Having urged you to purchase during the boom the paper of record now feels your pain.

“If you have purchased anything in the last 10 years you’re likely to be in negative equity.”

 

Cheers, Dan.