| The things that Ireland did right during expansion are | | | | the United States. At the same time Irelands |
| many. Starting with the EU, Ireland now had access to | | | | government, some would suggest, placed all too much |
| trade throughout Europe on a level it had only enjoyed | | | | emphasis on the success of the construction industry |
| before with the UK. This lead to a large trade surplus | | | | and did not diversify enough of its assets. Hind sight is |
| by the time of the crash putting many to work, | | | | always 20/20 but it will be some time before |
| standards of living to rise to second place in the | | | | construction comes back, leaving many without work |
| European Union and an economy hungry for | | | | or other training. |
| construction. At the same time Ireland pursued a | | | | While the banking and construction crisis were bad |
| program of promoting itself as a scientifically smart | | | | enough the problem of the economy was not |
| nation which was ready to take on the high tech | | | | contained to Ireland so Irish export demand suffered |
| demands of the world's most sought after companies | | | | greatly. At the same time that companies using Ireland |
| - which it succeeded in coaxing in; IBA, Apple, Dell and | | | | exports halted demand they also began to search for |
| others all sought to relocate to Ireland. These US | | | | cheaper alternatives. Ireland's wages had also grown |
| companies liked the fact that labor was cheaper, | | | | to second in the EU, leaving many to wonder if it could |
| language barriers did not exist and there was a highly | | | | ever be competitive again as users of Irish goods |
| technical workforce waiting and willing. Good times | | | | began outsourcing to places like China were wages |
| continued to roll. | | | | were and still are drastically cheaper. |
| But therein may lay a couple of answers as to what | | | | Without being able to stand on its exports, in aligning its |
| went wrong. First of all was that Ireland may have | | | | banking industry with that of the United States and |
| become too anxious to adopt US standards | | | | with a huge reliance on one industry, namely |
| particularly when it came to banking risks. Poor risk | | | | construction, Ireland will be slow to rebound. Certainly it |
| management on the part of banks led by the | | | | is not ready to pounce. It will recover at a rate much |
| popularity of credit default swaps set Ireland up | | | | like the United States, certainly not a world leader at |
| financially for disaster as soon as the balloon burst in | | | | this point. |