When corned-beef becomes hash

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain called for the United States to emulate Ireland, particularly its 11% business tax rate.

if you go to the country where it’s 11 percent tax versus 35 percent, you’re going to be able to create jobs, increase your business, make more investment, et cetera.

He didn't say that the fundamentals of the Irish economy were sound, but he came close.
Seven months later, we learn from New York Times colulmnist, and Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman, that

the Irish government now predicts that this year G.D.P. will fall more than 10 percent from its peak, crossing the line that is sometimes used to distinguish between a recession and a depression.
But there’s more to it than that: to satisfy nervous lenders, Ireland is being forced to raise taxes and slash government spending in the face of an economic slump — policies that will further deepen the slump.

Apparently, the Irish government and bankers over-leveraged their financial assets, in much the same way as happened in Iceland.
Unfortunately, the Irish government is responding to the banking crisis in much the same was as the U.S. is doing: bailing out the banks without fixing the fundamental problems with the banking systems.

Not to put too fine a point on it, that’s one reason I’m so concerned about the Obama administration’s bank plan. If, as some of us fear, taxpayer funds end up providing windfalls to financial operators instead of fixing what needs to be fixed, we might not have the money to go back and do it right.

Such are the joys of politics, economics, and world finance - everyone has a chance to get it seriously, dangerously wrong.
Oh, and about that 35% tax rate? It doesn't seem too burdensome for many corporations. According to the GAO, between 1998 and 2005, two-thirds of American corporations paid no income taxes.