The NYT contrasts the resistance to austerity measures in Greece with the enthusiastic embrace of budget cutbacks by the Irish government. It is worth noting that Ireland’s unemployment rate has increased from 4.6 percent before the crisis to 13.0 percent in the most recent data. It is unlikely that many of the economists and policymakers who promoted policies that lead to the crisis, or the bankers who profited from these policies, are among the 13.0 percent of the labor force who are unemployed.

–Dean Baker

Dean Baker is senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Read more about Dean.