The loss of political sovereignty was no doubt painful. But who would really pay the price for “cleaning up the mess”? Would it be voters and taxpayers, or those who had profited from inflating the credit bubble? In the Greek case, at least, the debts were public. In Ireland taxpayers were being asked to pay for huge losses incurred by deeply irresponsible banks and their investors all over Europe. On December 7 Dublin announced a budget with a new round of 6 billion euros in cuts, half of what would have been saved if the bank bondholders had been haircut across the board. Instead taxes were
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