IRELAND'S HANGOVER

摘要

Small is beautiful. That is the mantra Ireland's new government has adopted for restoring the country's troubled banks and banking system to stability. No more banks than a country of 4 million people really needs, no more massive loans for speculative property developments, no more expansion into foreign markets. It is a tough prescription for recovery to which the country's government has been driven by external pressures and by its desperate need to rebuild Ireland's own credit ratings, which have been pushed to near junk-bond levels by the propping up of its troubled banks. The restructuring is being driven by a timetable set by the terms of a bailout package agreed with the 'Troika' of the EU, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - as well as the demands of the bond markets, investors and a public restive for relief from the deep recession into which the country has been plunged.