The Personification of the Irish Economy

The NYT features a story on the rise and fall of Paul Quinn, recently Ireland's richest man:

HOW Sean Quinn fell so hard, so fast is a story for Ireland’s anguished economic times. Born John Ignatius Quinn, he got his start in business in 1975, when he borrowed 100 Irish pounds to dig a gravel quarry on his family’s farm.
But by 2007, having built a globe-spanning empire, he was borrowing billions to gamble on the shares of Anglo Irish. As the bank teetered, it lent huge sums of money to Mr. Quinn.
Hoping to turn a quick profit, he gambled on derivatives, financial instruments that, on the western side of the Atlantic, proved disastrous for the likes of the American International Group. Specifically, he wagered on what are known as contacts for difference, which are used to speculate on the price of a particular asset — in this case, the shares of Anglo Irish itself.
During the boom, these contracts were wildly popular in Ireland, in part because they enable investors to put down as little as 10 percent of the value of the underlying investment. They can be enormously profitable if the price of the underlying shares move in the investor’s favor — and disastrous if prices go the other way.
For Mr. Quinn, the contracts turned out to be cataclysmic. He lost so big that, combined with Ireland’s deep recession and other missteps, his empire was brought to its knees.

The whole thing is worth a read.  The byzantine nature of the Quinn empire makes the case extremely puzzling.  I think the multinational complexity of the ownership structures reflects the tax avoidance strategies which made Ireland such a popular destination for corporations. Even if they weren't manufacturing much product there, they funnelled international sales through Ireland at take advantage of the corporate tax rate.  Anyway, the Quinn saga is bizarre.