Where will it all end?

After a disastrous week for Ireland with the coming in of the IMF for 'negotiations' (read 'ultimatums') I'm feeling desperate and depressed about the future, as well as slightly guilty about the prospect of abandoning ship, but will not suffer through another '80s in Ireland. The current government plan will really hit the people of this country hard, while the banks and bondholders laugh all the way to the...well, bank. Watched Frontline last night and heard Philippe Legrain talk about other alternatives to this plan, like for instance the government could say we made a horrendous mistake in 2008 when we guaranteed bank debt, making any debt of the banks sovereign debt needing to be paid by the Irish people. They could just say no, we want the bondholders to accept some of the pain, separate out the bank debt from the country's real debt, which actually isn't that bad. He made some mention of another alternative which would be to turn the bonds into shares which would bring in a flood of money, I'm not sure I understand this exactly, so will read his book, Aftershock: Reshaping the World Economy After the Crisis. One thing for certain is the old boy's club politics is not going to work any more, we need new blood. Good to see two new 'parties' being represented on that programme also, one that interests me more is the United Left Alliance, which seems to have some great ideas, basically rip it all down and start again, get women into the Dail, don't pay off the banks, put money now into building jobs & the economy, taxing the wealthy, public ownership of the banks, coming out from under the ‘‘dictatorship of the financial markets’’. It's all shifting around at the moment, turning into a completely new soup...