Unlike Greece, both Ireland and Spain were “best in class” in terms of debts and deficits going into the crisis. In 2007 Ireland’s net debt-to-GDP ratio was 12 percent, and Spain’s was 26 percent. In contrast, Germany’s debt sat at 50 percent of GDP. Why, then, did Ireland and Spain have a crisis when Germany did not? The answer, as usual, begins and ends with the banks, in this case via real-estate lending.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 181