On 14 April the New Statesman published an article which was intended to show that the Irish economy is booming at the expense of ‘Brexit Britain’. This conclusion was backed by some striking graphics, which are still being gleefully shared by the usual suspects.
But it was also baloney. People have been taken in here by what Paul Krugman has called ‘leprechaun economics’ (or, if you prefer, ‘shamrock economics’, with the emphasis on ‘sham’).
The one strong point in the article was that the Irish economy has benefited from relatively low rates of corporation tax. You might normally expect the New Statesman to rail against ‘tax havens’ and ‘profit shifting’, but presumably that would have muddled the anti-Brexit message here.
So no mention either of concerns that the Irish economy has become too dependent on revenues from multinationals, with more than half of corporate tax being paid by
View original post 954 more words
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments