Boots: 128MB Sony MemoryStick (largest capacity in stock), 54.95

Argos: 256MB Sony MemoryStick, 49.99, 512MB Sony MemoryStick, 79.99

Approximate distance between entrances: 20ft

So, does this mean that nobody’s buying their memory sticks in Boots, because the price is prohibitive? Or that retailers are employing a ‘let’s see what we can get away with’ pricing approach? I wonder …

It does seem very reminiscent of the approach to house pricing in Ireland these days. But yet people keep on buying because, y’know, there’s no such thing as an economic cycle. Or interest rates. And the old rules don’t apply because we finally found the crock of gold and the good times are here forever. And the fact that one in eight jobs in this country is in the construction sector is immaterial of course, because the blessed property market operates in a vacuum. We’ll just keep building those houses and filling them with immigrants, right. They just better be immigrants earning six-figure salaries, of course.

Banks moving out of property in a big way ("AIB agrees record €360m sale leaseback deal for HQ extension … by far the largest property transaction of its kind ever in the Irish market" [Unison, use Bugmenot for access]) isn’t really important, though. What would mortgage lenders know about the direction the property market is moving in anyway? Sure they’re even paying first time buyers to take out mortgages now. What could possibly go wrong? Of course, we all know the market prices are being driven by a scarcity of supply, so we should really ignore this CSO report from April [PDF] which states that "approximately 275, 000 residences were vacant at the time of the census". Those crazy statisticians must have been at the crack pipe again.

Edit:  Another chart I came across. Double the EU average and a-rising. Inextricably linked seems to be the most accurate prase. Irish people not suckers at all. 

It’s a shame that this idiotic spending spree may very well negate any of the positive effects of the large inflow of capital into this country over the past decade. All gleefully encouraged by lending institutions and politicians’ builder (sorry, developer) friends.