Having been “protected” from the outcomes of their own economic decisions and given an EU bailout instead, Ireland seems to have become dependent on the largesse of others and incapable of working through their own problems toward their own prosperity.

Here’s what’s going on now, as described by Christoph Pauly of Spiegel Online International [emphasis added].

Ireland’s demands are very precise—and could be costly for the Germans.  At stake are the €31 billion that the country received from the system of European central banks to save two crisis-ridden Irish financial institutions in 2010 [Note: this is the original bailout].  The country is expected to pay this money back in installments over the next 10 years.

Spiegel Online International carried an interesting article the other day.  They cited the Institute for New Economic Thinking as saying

We believe that as of July 2012, Europe is sleepwalking toward a disaster of incalculable proportions….

Paraphrasing them, SOI went on to say that the European leadership must move faster and more decisively, else the euro could simply disintegrate.  The INET report can be read here.

SOI went on, noting that

The experts wrote that the crisis is the result of flawed design, construction and implementation of the finance and currency system.  In order to rescue it, the economists are calling for a radical restructuring.

Much is being made of the impending collapse of the euro, and of the disaster this would represent for Europe.  Indeed, a graph published by Spiegel Online can look frightening:

The risk to Germany in particular?  Much is made about the money Germany and Germans have in some of the PIIGS, as the graph below indicates.

But against the German 2011 GDP of €2.57 trillion, this totals to less than 4%.  That will sting, but not much.