Ireland

[lektrode]

Re: Ireland

wow!

and whoa!


thats not where i _ever_ thot 'deflation' would rear its ugly little.... er.... uhh....

bush?

;)

[bpwoods]

Re: Ireland

Mega's original request was. I presume, about the local costs of goods and services. There have always been significant price differentials between Irl, UK and continental europe. Since we accepted the Euro as our currency, there has been complete transparency with other Euro currency countries, but we still have to convert for UK prices. Let's just say, that in Ireland (an island which has a land frontier with another state) that price differences for commonly traded goods can be quite revealing -and maddening! Ours are usually (though not universally) higher.

There is a very brisk level of criminal trade in petroleum spirits (agricultural diesel is not subject to excise duty and value-added tax). The authorities place a colored dye (red in Irl, green in UK) in the agri version, and the smugglers use devious methods to extract colour (residual fuel has harmful levels of acid!) and sell through dodgey retail outlets.

Just as an aside. The FIRE economy went through Ireland like an Abrams with a flamethrower (instead of a howitzer) mounted on its turret. Lots of scorched folk and property. I always make an effort to raise the matter of the FIRE with anyone I meet. Sadly, all (including my college economics and politics professors) never heard of the thing. What's to say?

Brian