Maybe Ireland wasn't such a good example......

[Bennyboy]

Ireland is first eurozone nation in recession
1 day ago
DUBLIN (AFP) — Ireland on Thursday became the first eurozone member to fall into a recession since the US subprime home loan crisis sparked a global economic slowdown, official data showed.
Ireland's economy, rocked by a domestic property market meltdown, entered recession for the first time in 25 years after shrinking in the second quarter of 2008, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said in a statement.
European neighbours Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain sit on the brink of recession amid global economic turmoil. Denmark, which is not in the eurozone, fell into recession -- two successive quarters of negative growth -- earlier this year.
"Ireland is definitively in recession: the first euro area country to be so," said Barclays Capital analyst Julian Callow.
Irish gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.5 percent in the second quarter of 2008 compared with the previous three-month period when the economy contracted 0.3 percent, according to the CSO.
The "Celtic Tiger" economy has not experienced a recession since 1983.
"We expect that Italy and quite possibly Germany will also record contractions in their third-quarter GDP, following contractions in the second quarter -- with a substantial risk that France does as well -- so Ireland is unlikely to be alone in entering the euro area 'recession club,' Callow said.
"As Ireland recovers from a major construction melt-down and surging unemployment, it seems likely to continue to experience further negative quarters ... perhaps into 2009," he added
Ireland has in recent years been described by analysts as the "Celtic Tiger" economy because of its prolonged period of double-digit growth in the 1990s, which placed it among the richest nations in Europe.
However, it has been hammered by the international credit crisis, a severe property and construction industry downturn, weak consumer spending, sky-high oil prices and the strong euro.
Howard Archer, at the Global Insight consultancy in London, said it was not a shock that Ireland had lost its roar.
"It was no surprise that Ireland contracted again in the second quarter as a wide range of indicators had been extremely weak -- be it relating to the service sector, manufacturing, consumer confidence and retail sales," he told AFP.
"Clearly, the housing market and construction downturns are having a major depressing impact on Irish economic activity, on top of wider European problems including the strong euro, elevated oil, commodity and food prices, the financial sector turmoil and slowing global growth," he said


Red More:http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9uch9QDg5jtnuh1jLjatAYpER6A

[maddezmom]

1. good one n/t

[babylonsister]

2. Irish-Catholic organization says McCain’s Irish joke was ‘an insult to a whole nationality.’»

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=7197987

Right, not a good place to go.

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

4. The Irish are losing their sense of humor. I'm Irish and all

of the Irish jokes I ever heard were told by Irish.

We used to like good laugh-----guess that's no longer the case.

[babylonsister]

5. McCain isn't Irish apparently; did you read the thread? nt

[CountAllVotes]

3. this just shows how up-to-date McInsane is!

yes, you are right. Things are really bad there now. Throw in the global warming to the mix of empty houses that can't be sold, sub-prime loans, and rampant unemployment and you've got a huge mess along with political problems as well!

:kick:

[mulsh]

6. I'm an Irish America, a Twin & St. Mary's High, class of '75 grad

I'm not offended by that old joke. I'm offended that McLame is too stupid to realize he's holding a mike with cameras rolling telling a stupid ethnic joke.
he's got a long history of offensive behavior. Jeeze the Ancient Hibernians are going after him.

[Bennyboy]

7. The most offensive thing was before the joke.....

when he said he didn't know why ethnic jokes are off limits....