Irland er igjen i alvorlige økonomiske problemer, og river med seg Portugal. Hvis Irland må ha mer penger utenfra vil også tilliten til Portugal fordampe. I bakgrunnen spøker Spania som er en langt større økonomi, men med 20 prosent arbeidsledighet.

Mens finansrådgivere i Norge anbefaler aksjer, er det helt andre signaler fra makroøkonomien ute i Europa. Den svake økonomiske veksten er at de utsatte landene som Hellas og nå Irland, har problemer med å karre seg inn på tørt land, dvs. et nivå hvor de kan betale sine forpliktelser. De har fått hjelp, men kommer ikke på bena.

Problemet er at andre land i eurosonen, fremst Tyskland, ikke befinner seg i krise. Det finnes to ulike spor, og de som gjør det godt ønsker ikke å betale gildet nok en gang for andre. Den tyske regjering finner rett og slett ikke politisk dekning på hjemmebane for nok en redningspakke.

European officials, increasingly concerned that the Continent’s debt crisis will spread, are warning that any new rescue plans may need to cover Portugal as well as Ireland to contain the problem they tried to resolve six months ago.
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Any such plan would have to be preceded by a formal request for assistance from each country before it would be put in place. And for months now, Ireland has insisted that it has enough funds to keep it going until spring. Portugal says it, too, needs no help and emphasizes that it is in a stronger position than Ireland.
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The bureaucratic machinations in Brussels highlight one of the main concerns that grew out of the establishment earlier this year of a rescue fund of 500 billion euros (about $680 billion at today’s exchange rate) by the European Union after the Greek budget crisis: What happens if, in the next crisis, multiple countries need aid at the same time?

Months later, it remains unclear how, in practice, countries like Ireland and Portugal would tap the rescue money.
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Of paramount concern to policy makers in Europe is Spain, which is struggling to close its own deficit of 9 percent of G.D.P. at a time when unemployment is more than 20 percent and the economy is failing to grow.

Irish banking losses are estimated at up to 80 billion euros ($109 billion), depending on the forecast used, or 50 percent of the economy. As long as housing prices continue to fall, these losses cannot be capped.

Europe Fears That Debt Crisis Is Ready to Spread