Irish Stock Market

If it wasn't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all - Pug Mahoney

   March 17 is the day to remember the missionary who converted many of the Irish to the new religion spreading in Europe. At the time, however, Patrick was not affiliated with church leaders in Rome, but with a different set of leaders in Britain.
   It was centuries later that Vatican leaders stopped condemning Patrick as unworthy. The people in Ireland had adopted him as a spiritual leader, and efforts to dissuade them had no effect, so the Vatican awarded his spirit sainthood as a way to bring the Irish back into the Roman fold.
   It worked.
   Today's question is about how to get investors back into the fold of true believers in the health of the world economy.
   Is the economy healthy, or will an infection of a few major banks spread throughout the world like a virus and sicken entire national economies?
   After a hectic week of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 400 points. Whether this selloff continues next week is the big worry among investors.
   But the larger question remains whether the problems faced by a handful of financial institutions are serious enough to endanger the rest of the world.
   Many believe they are. In its  way, economics as interpreted by financiers has become a symptom of business health for a nation and world.
   Similarly, faith in just one religious system is taken as a symptom that will guarantee good spiritual health in an everlasting Otherworld.
   For one thing, true believers insist their way of conducting business is the cure for everlasting economic good health.
   They are sometimes mistaken.
   Likewise, true believers in a single spiritual system have faith that their way is the cure for everlasting life in the Afterworld.
   Where is the Real Truth?
   Maybe we should ask Patrick.