STEVE INSKEEP, Host: Let's start NPR's business news starts with the big Irish bailout.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, Host: It's two years, now, since the global financial crisis, but banks continue to be a source of instability. Ireland is the second European nation in six months, after Greece, to require a multibillion-dollar bailout. The great fear was that Ireland's financial problems could spread to weaker states like Portugal and Spain. A bailout could total more than $100 billion.
The European Union and the International Monetary Fund are hammering out details of an emergency funding package for Ireland. Officials in Dublin resisted outside help for weeks, but on Sunday agreed to a three-year bailout package to keep their banks and their government from failing.