As fighting has spread into the two
main Syrian cities of Damascus and Aleppo, generally speaking, the mass
movement has greatly ebbed in the last few months giving way to a
guerrilla-like armed struggle lead by the militias of the Free Syrian
Army. So, where is Syria going and what is the revolution, or, quite
arguably, what remains of the revolution, going to produce?

RTÉ and the Irish press report fairly
regularly about the workings of the Troika and the discussions Enda
Kenny (leader of Fine Gael) and Michael Noonan (Minister of Finance)
hold with European Union and the IMF, although the edited highlights and
the “communiqués” don’t mention the small print. As many people behind
on the mortgage will have found out to their cost over the last few
years, the devil is in the detail.

As the Spanish government got its
€65bn austerity package passed in Parliament, millions of people took to
the streets in unprecedented demonstrations against cuts on July 19.
The day after, as the Valencian regional government asked for a central
government bailout (of 3.5bn euro), the risk premium on Spanish bonds
hit a new record, while 10 year bonds were yielding 7.3%. The Spanish
economy is on the verge of a full bailout.