It wasn't too long ago that Ireland was "The Celtic Tiger," in a nod to the Asian Tiger nations whose economies collapsed around the turn of the century. It was a comparison that should have been examined more closely.

Ireland became the darling of global finance because they removed any and every sensible control over the movement and rights of capital. As was entirely predictable, the Irish banking industry ran wild, loaded up with long-term risk to collect wondrous short-term profits, and when it all collapsed, they coerced their bought legislators to hock the country to save the banks. Sound at all familiar?

Ireland should have followed the example set by Iceland. Bankrupt the banks. High-flying finance insists it deserves all the riches because it takes such great risks, but notice whenever they encounter losses those all have to go on the public's tab. The gains, of course, stay privatized. Iceland pulled out of the extraction process, and they're doing just fine today. Ireland has turned its people into slaves, like Greece, and next Italy, Spain and Portugal. That's what they have in mind for us, too. Watch closely to see what comes of the negotiations over our entirely fictional "Fiscal Cliff." No doubt nothing will be done about the costs of allowing finance to dominate our health care and military, so the costs will have to be paid for by those least able to pay--as intended. The US is a much vaster and richer nation that Ireland, Greece, Italy, Spain or Portugal, so it will be longer before the pain bites so harshly that Americans are in the streets. But it will happen.

"Austerity" has come to mean paying your bills. Oh how cruel.

Some people don't want to follow the example set in Great Britain where they are entering a double-dip recession. Their economy is contracting, revenue is decreasing, debt and deficit is increasing, GDP is shrinking, jobs losses are mounting. And to think Great Britian followed the Republican model to balance the budget.