Nobel Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has once again mocked the notion of an Irish economic miracle.

Writing in his blog on the New York Times site Krugman takes issue with fellow economist Jean Pisani-Ferry who stated about Europe’s austerity measures:

“Three years later, the results are mixed at best. Unemployment has increased much more than anticipated and social hardship is unmistakable. There is one bright spot: Ireland, which is set to recover from an exceptionally severe financial crisis."

Krugman says Ireland is far from a bright spot. “As best I can tell, Ireland has been universally (that is, by all the Serious people) proclaimed a successful role model at least once a year since the crisis began. Meanwhile, unemployment remains spectacularly high, although down a bit.”

Krugman does not even refer to rampant emigration which keeps unemployment from getting higher than 15 percent.)

Krugman asks if 15 per cent unemployment is a measure of success, “This is a “bright spot,”?" he asks derisively.

Krugman says prediction of Ireland’s economic recovery is nothing new. “We’ve heard that before, and before, and before....much of the data used to tell the recovery story is suspect — not because it’s wrong, exactly, but because Ireland’s odd economic structure, in which so much of its reported exports in particular come from companies that add little value in Ireland, means that the usual numbers have to be treated with great caution.

He concludes, “So look: maybe Ireland really is going to recover for real soon; let’s hope so. But the repeated declarations that it is already a success story — this has been going on for at least three years — are just weird.”