Moody’s just downgraded Ireland’s government bond rating. Which means drastically more woe for the Irish people, even though they got very little actual benefit from the better rating.

So at a time when housing prices are upside down and there are no jobs, Ireland will have to do some massive austerity measures in order to spend the cash to appease the fraudulent Moody’s gods.

It is not unlike having to spend half or more of your paycheck on credit card debt (that you racked up because wages were stagnant and you couldn’t buy groceries without a line of credit). (Household economics and macroeconomics do not usually have direct analogies. You don’t print money in you house, and you can’t issue bonds to borrow for expenses, etc.)

For the average person, this is how it works. Go to college. Get loans to pay for college. Get a job to pay for college loans. Job requires transportation, certain dress standards. You also need to eat, pay for housing, pay for childcare. First chunk of your money goes to pay the loans. So you get credit cards. Credit cards make up the difference as long as you are able to access greater and greater levels of credit. You need credit for housing, for transport, etc. When shit finally hits the fan in the cycle of unending debt, you default.

For governments,