U.S. taxpayers will contribute $5 billion to Irish bailout

As Ireland is set to receive its first $7 billion in IMF funds this week it has been revealed that U.S. taxpayers will contribute $5 billion to the bailout.

$30 billion of the Irish bailout is being given by the International Monetary Fund. The U.S. contributes 17 per cent of the IMF budget making its contribution to the bailout about $5 billion.

In addition US institutional investors hold about $25 billion in Irish assets according to the Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements.

That amounts to about 15 per cent of the total $170 billion invested in Irish banks by foreign lenders.
If Ireland were to default then the US taxpayer and institutional investors would be hard hit.

Repudiating the debt is exactly what international financier George Soros believes that the next Irish government will do however.

Writing in the Financial Times last month Soros said that the new government is ‘bound to repudiate’ the rescue package agreed with the EU and IMF.

Soros sated that the markets will recognize that the deal will not hold and that the high interest rate charged on the Irish deal makes it impossible for Ireland to be competitive with its European neighbors.