Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by borism 5739 days ago
Yeah, what's the pattern? Never heard that Ireland had a large grey economy, yet it seems to me to be the most troubled of the bunch.
1 comments

Not so much in Dublin perhaps, but rural Ireland is all about favours and bartering, it's not even really a "black market" since cash isn't the currency.

I dunno, it's cool, it makes it feel much more like a connected community, but you can't trade mackerel for fenceposts (this is a real deal in which I was involved) in the global economy without going via actual cash...

From what I've read about Greece, Ireland's problems are completely different. Nothing to do with a black market, more to do with an incompetent government that let property prices get out of control.