The Lisbon Treaty... again

The islands off the west coast of Ireland are casting ballots for the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty again, and it has the attention of all of Europe right now.

What I find interesting is that so many of the "Silicon Valley" industries that have landed in Ireland since 1993 (Intel, Dell, and Microsoft among them) who encouraged a NO vote the first time, now are arguing for a YES vote... and can you imagine the reason given?

They want the Central Bank of Europe to offer the same sort of bailouts that the US has instituted to save failing businesses here.

It really does boggle the mind... to read the papers and headlines in Ireland and the UK, the blame for the recession in Ireland is laid squarely on a too-liberal agenda that has increased corporate taxes and slowed the rate of growth in an economy that was BOOMING with the influx of companies fleeing higher and higher US taxes, especially from California, New York and Mass. However, the calls to "fix" the problem are saying that MORE government, from Brussells and not from Dublin, and more intervention is the answer.

I would have thought that simply looking at what the bailouts here in the US HAVEN'T done would be enough for any rational human being to see that they do not work, that they do not create jobs, and that they do not stimulate an economy beyond the initial influx of money. It isn't even a good short-term fix, let alone a long-term one.

God grant that the Irish are smarter than we are...