Ireland set to go bust, claims economic historian

A dire warning that the Republic is a prime candidate to go bust has come from one of the world’s leading economic historians. “The idea that countries don’t go bust is a joke,” said Niall Ferguson, Harvard professor and author of The Ascent of Money. “The debt trap may be about to spring” he said, “for countries that have created large stimulus packages in order to stimulate their economies.” His chosen prime candidate to go bust is “Ireland, followed by Italy and Belgium, and UK is not too far behind”. Argentina is top of his list of shaky countries but “the argument that it can’t happen in major western economies is nonsense”… The Independent