However, while in Europe it is already known that the new rules, once agreed, will be included in a Community Directive with immediate application in all Member States, it is unclear what the degree of implementation in other countries, particularly the US, will be. In the light of what happened with Basel II, the risk of only partial application is a concern.
This period up to 2001 was termed the ‘Celtic Tiger’ era, by analogy to the fast-growing group of emerging Asian economies that had enjoyed rapid expansion in the 1970s and 1980s. It is important to emphasise that sustainable growth was only possible due to a long period of public investment in the education sector that provided an important local supply of high-skilled workers.