November 13, 2010); Ireland is facing severe headwinds for future growth. The depression of the real estate market and the decline in the availability of capital stock for investment through the banking system is of primary concern to policy makers. With the acceptance of the European Union bailout the demand for Ireland to incorporate austerity measures and increases in tax rates pose obturations for growth. An increase in the

European Debt Crisis Beginning in 2010, Europe was plunged into a major financial crisis. This is because many of the weaker member states (i.e. Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland) were running high deficits to finance different social programs. When the economy was strong, these initiatives were used as a way to help win the support of the electorate. At the same time, many individuals believed that this kind of approach was

Literature Review, Analysis and Discussion 7,500 words This section presents a review of the recent relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning environmental sustainability in general and how environmental sustainability initiatives can help multinational corporations of different sizes and types achieve a competitive advantage in particular. Literature Review. According to Michalisin and Stinchfield (2010), "There is widespread consensus that human activity has had a significant impact on global climatic patterns which will have

EUropean Union Enlargement When ten countries recently joined the 15 existing European Union (EU) member-states, the event represented the largest enlargement of the European Union in its history (Golino, 2003). One of the major perceived benefits of this union is that the countries formed an economic, political and military coalition with a combined population of 450 million people and an economy that produces approximately one-quarter of the world's annual output. The new

Costa Rican Economy from the FDI Perspective Development of a nation results from a number of national characteristics and policies, pertaining to extra-economic and economic matters. No Latin American nation is developed -- in fact, all are far from it, which is a harsh reminder of the fact that their task is challenging and mostly pending. However, the Latin American region is quite heterogeneous, with respect to both income (a

This development approach, by the European Union, is similar to the Bretton Woods institutions' 'Washington consensus', which was developed in the latter half of the 1980s, following "several severe balance of payments crises of developing countries" (Nienhaus, 2002, p. 55). The European Union does not favor indiscriminate opening of markets, but rather it looks for more liberal trade arrangements with developing countries and the European Union solely. This policy