Quote Originally Posted by DrPatrickBarry View Post
What nonsense How about replacing Italy with Ireland.

When Ireland joined the EU and then the Euro it was decades behind mainland Europe in economic and social development.
On 1st January 2002 countries first started using Euro bank notes. The year before Ireland was ranked 13th out of 195 countries in the world for GDP per capita.

https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/ireland?year=2001

That doesn't sound like being light years behind the rest of Europe to me. Ireland adopts a very competitive corporation tax rate, which attracts a lot of investment. That is a much better explanation for Ireland's success. That may not last forever though - the EU has plans to harmonise tax rates across Europe. This will cause tremendous damage to Ireland.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/...exit-1.3220094

I already said that countries have to take some responsibility for their problems but the euro strait jacket exacerbates them as I explained. Some countries can compete at the same exchange rate but others quite clearly cannot.