In our continent, with apparent consensus on a European way of conducting economic policy in a consistent and largely cooperative way, and in particular with the creation of the single currency, what future would there be for students of the Irish economy if the object of their analysis was blending into a broader European background as a merely regional economic entity?
As the millennium turned, everywhere deregulated financial firms seemed to be at the forefront, spearheading this era of prosperity with their support for investment backed by increasingly sophisticated risk management systems. By now everyone understands that the exaggerated and over-reaching reliance on financialisation (see later) for generating prosperity was sowing the seeds of the global crisis.