Not one to read a paper most days I reluctantly picked up the the Irish Times while waiting for my next meeting. You'll be glad to hear I skimmed the wall to wall Cowen coverage and stumbled upon coverage by the Irish Times of the recent visit to Ireland by Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive of the US Chamber of Commerce. Amidst the relentless beating of our breasts and scorning of anybody remotely to do with politics I found the article a beacon of hope and sanity. You should check it out: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0124/1224288162493.html

The nugget I took from it was: “American business people and financiers are worried about a cascading problem from Greece to Portugal to Spain and wherever. They were not worried about Ireland because it had the fundamentals of a strong economy. It had an improved infrastructure, a trained and educated workforce, a good location and good management." There you are now. Someone is optimistic.