One green shoot

Ireland climbed out of recession on Wednesday with the economy
returning to growth in the first quarter [2.7 percent], after suffering one of the
deepest downturns of any advanced industrialised economy.

Don't get too giddy with optimism: the Irish economy had declined fifteen percent.  Still, it's far too early to judge the Irish experiment in pre-emptive fiscal austerity to be a failure.  The full story is here.