Making Sen$e: Erin Go Broke

MAKING SEN$E -- January 25, 2011 at 11:54 AM EDT

Making Sen$e: Erin Go Broke

Today's post puts the economic woes of the Emerald Isle to music. The lyrics are Hazard's, though I confess to have taken crack at them myself and then, at some risk to my ego, sent both sets of lyrics -- mine and the master's, our names not included -- to several eminent economists for a vote.

Mine lost in a unanimous decision. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the digital universe for being able to salvage them here, and to encourage you to similarly carpe diem, as explained below.

You, at least, will not be competing with -- but FOR -- the master.

My lyrics: (also to the tune of "Danny Boy")

Oh Danny boy, your banks, your banks are wailing;
From glen to glen, they loaned to housing new;
The boom is gone, and all the banks are failing;
Erin goes broke, or Europe sees you through.

Investors, they will only keep you solvent
Should you agree, your belt to tighten more;
But how can Ireland employ all the Irish
If firms cut costs, by showing workers to the door?

Oh Emerald Isle, you could perhaps raise taxes
But foreign firms would turn your greenfields brown,
And when a firm quits town your folk it axes,
Leaving Erin further broken down.

What's Paddy's choice, then? What could be the cure? -- oh
Danny boy, damned if you do or you don't?
Revive the Irish punt and throw away the Euro,
Then tell your lenders where to shove the dough they've loant
Then tell your lenders where to shove the dough they've loant.

We'll be continuing all week with new country country songs by Mr. Merle. If you haven't already, you might like to watch yesterday's ditty about Spain's economic plight.

And for the lyrically-inclined, he and I re-extend our invitation to enter our Making Sen$e contest. Got a lyric or two about European debt woes? Iceland's? France's? Luxembourg's? Post them (or a link to a video of you singing them) in the comments below. And here's the best part: Merle will record the winning lyrics, and we'll post his rendition of your work here. You can even copy it for your home answering machine.

This entry is cross-posted on the Making Sen$e page, where correspondent Paul Solman answers your economic and business questions. Follow Paul on Twitter.

Beginning October 24, 2012, PBS NewsHour will allow open commenting for all registered users. We hope that the elimination of our moderation process will enable a more organic discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment will be removed. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.