"I wonder why US and UK publications publish this topic over and over."
"Ireland and Greece are tiny countries. Their problems are totally blown out of proportion."
I think you answered your own question, I bet if you asked a number of Americans which had the larger population of Ireland or Germany, a significant number would not know or would even guess Ireland. I also bet if you asked a number of Americans which had the larger population of Ireland or Massachusetts, a large majority would say Ireland, even residents of Massachusetts.
I bet if you asked a number of Americans which had the larger population of Ireland or Germany, a significant number would not know or would even guess Ireland.
This may be true of the average US citizen. Probably much less true of readers of thestreet.com or any US publication about economics. And certainly not true of folks reading economic publications in the UK, who are well aware of the relative sizes of Ireland and Germany.
Spain, on the other hand, has fifty million people, and is being talked about as possibly the next domino to fall. If that happens, it's much more serious than Greece or Ireland.
PS. Ireland and Massachusetts are roughly the same size; I think anyone can be forgiven for not knowing which is larger.
To save other people Googling, populations and GDP per capita (2009, USD) of the economies under discussion. All from Google apart from GSP (gross state product) per capita of Massachusetts, which is from Wikipedia.
That high GDP # is the real estate bubble about to burst. Unfortunately most of my erstwhile countrymen (including the bankers) thought it meant spending power. I find it painful to read about, honestly.
"Ireland and Greece are tiny countries. Their problems are totally blown out of proportion."
I think you answered your own question, I bet if you asked a number of Americans which had the larger population of Ireland or Germany, a significant number would not know or would even guess Ireland. I also bet if you asked a number of Americans which had the larger population of Ireland or Massachusetts, a large majority would say Ireland, even residents of Massachusetts.