The eurozone is heading for a fresh crisis

George Osborne, eat your heart out. If you want to see really tough government spending cuts, you have to cross the Irish Sea. Yesterday, in its budget statement, the government doubled the size of the fiscal cuts it plans to make over the next four years, from €7.5bn to €15bn. And €6bn of that will be taken next year. These are ambitious moves. As RBS put it, it certainly demonstrates that "Ireland is a serious country". Sadly, it might not be enough to prevent Ireland from needing a bail-out in the near future...