« Quote of the Day for Friday, August 23, 2007 | Main | Quote of the Day for Saturday, August 25, 2007 »

August 24, 2007

More on Ireland's Rise as an Example for Latin America

My friend John Daly emailed me with some great feedback on my post on Ireland's rise as an example for Latin America:

From my reading, my interviews with people who work and invest in Ireland, and from my experience in Ireland, I would agree with Oppenheimer that Latin America--especially Mexico--should look at Ireland as an example. Certainly land reform and opening credit markets have worked brilliantly. The key, however, is education. I wrote about this last December while I visited Mexico.

One thing Oppenheimer failed to mention, though, was the move by Ireland to drop from their Constitution the notion of a unified Ireland in the 1990s. Once that was stated, the sectarian violence ended and commerce began.

We should also realize that Ireland's economy has also benefited from a perfect economic storm--which may not happen for Latin America. For the Irish, the wealthy retired German pensioner, looking for growth in their retirement funds, has heaped what appears to be an un-ending supply of capital into Ireland's educated and technologically based economy. It's one of the reasons why the Irish are getting fat while also owning some of the most expensive hotel real estate in--sit down you Anglophiles--London. My question to you, John, is this: Is there an equivalent of the German pensioners for Latin America?

A good book for your readers is The Pope's Children: Ireland's New Elite by David McWilliams, a fabulous book that profiles the new Ireland as David Brooks' Bobos in Paradise profiled America's new elite in the late 1990s. If your readers are interested in business opportunities in Ireland, they should visit the website for the US-Ireland Alliance and reach my good friend Trina Vargo, the organization's president.

Also, here's an interesting fact if you like to compare golf to business: the two reigning champs of the U.S. Open and the British Open are an Irishmen (Padraic Harrington) and an Argentinean (Angel Cabrera). Can golf be a leading economic indicator?

In answer to John's question regarding what the Latin American equivalent to Ireland's German investors, I responded as follows:

In a sense, I think Oppenheimer has a good answer for your question about the German pensioners: many Latin American countries, through their currently large resource-related revenues in oil, gas, minerals, etc., already have their own “German pensioners”. Further, investment in emerging markets on a global basis is much more prevalent today than it was 20 years ago, so Latin America has sources of capital from around the world which are much deeper than what Ireland had access to during its ascent.

Incidentally, I've spoken with Trina Vargo and she's a very helpful and knowledgeable source for anyone in the U.S. doing business in Ireland.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.heritagetidbits.com/cgi-bin/mt/mtb.cgi/2993

Comments

Post a comment