Ship of Fools

"For twenty years, Ireland's economic miracle was supposed to be the envy of the world. Low taxes, light regulation and an 'anything goes' attitude seemed to have created boundless prosperity in one of Europe's least developed countries. Intel, Dell and Apple built factories in small towns. Churches were turned into swanky hotels, SUVs clogged the roads, croissants came to every rural village, Irish rock groups dominated the international charts, emigration stopped and Poles came to serve the drinks and build the ugly new houses mushrooming up all over the landscape. And property prices in Dublin were, by the early years of the new century, higher than those in London. And then, as in Iceland, the glittering palaces vanished in the heat of the global financial meltdown. For years, those with economic power had been investing in a gigantic property bubble." "Fintan O'Toole tells the story of this dizzying rise and sickening fall in a narrative that combines satire, controlled indignation and a command of Irish realities. Ireland may have had a tiger economy, but those in charge of it had not lost their taste for sweetheart deals, back-handers and bribery: for them everything changed, and nothing did." --Book Jacket.