Tt is a strategy used by countless students down the years: identify the least able classmate and endeavour to stay ahead of him. Governments have tried a similar trick to persuade voters and markets that their economies are doing well in difficult circumstances. "We are not Greece" has been a constant refrain from euro-zone countries to nervous bond investors. The consoling thought for Ireland's put-upon taxpayers has been "at least we're not Iceland", whose outsize banks failed spectacularly in 2008. But that comfort is fading. Evidence of economic recovery in Iceland means the Irish can no longer persuade themselves that things are worse elsewhere.
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