And So It Begins.

Short post today, as I believe that quite soon Ireland will have no access to the Internet anyway. So what's the point? The flame of our independence is now flickering, sputtering in the darkness of our own incompetence and inability. Are we concerned? Apparently not, as the Irish media is primarily concerned with the Pope's visit to the UK, the remaining fallout from Portergate, and with the discovery of Radon in 600 Irish homes.

Meanwhile, the world media is also keeping its beady eye on Ireland, but they seem to have different interest to our local newshounds. They don't give a damn about Biffo anymore, having obviously deduced that he is not worthy of attention, and they care little for what the Pope's visit means for Ireland, or anywhere else for that matter. They do, however, care about the fact that the Government is on the cusp of calling the IMF in, and that our bond spreads have shot to over 6.3%.

If you look at the link above to the Irish 10 year bond price tracker, you will see, in the little graph at the top of the page, an analysis of the performance of Irish bonds over the last year (i.e. how much we are being charged for a loan). Two spikes are prominent - one in May, and one now. The one in May was caused by general concerns plaguing the Eurozone over the likelihood of a Greek default. The spike now, however, is all down to market sentiment regarding Ireland.

Simply put, the markets are as frightened now as they were in the midst of Greece's troubles (and the world can see that Greece is a basket-case) but this time, the terror driving our cost of borrowing is solely caused by the management of the Irish economy and banking sector, or lack thereof. We cannot blame this on foreigners - not the Greeks, not the Germans, not even the Brits.

We are about to see a homegrown crisis of Hellenic proportions.

I'm going to buy a shotgun, a tent, and some canned food over the weekend.