One more Irish person leaves
“However, pouring billions down the drain to keep zombie banks alive, while the vulnerable and the blameless bear the brunt of fiscal restructuring, is paradigmatically amoral.”
Link, via Mark Little.
in the news
A Smart `Smart Economy’
In my book, during speaking gigs, during conferences, and in the press, I’ve been ranting solidly about indigenous job creation: the only way to break the cycle of requiring FDI for growth and watching the jobs created from FDI disappear when macroeconomic conditions worsen, (Ferenka/Krups/Dell in Limerick, for example) is to build those jobs here.
Normally, during recessions, creating those [...]
Elderly Take Over!
This headline from the Irish Times, for some reason, gives me images of grannies in camouflage with AK47s and grenades storming the Dáil. The subject is ageing, and the effect an older population will have on economics, politics, and society. The UN Population Division has issued a report showing just how trends in the average [...]
Tagged Add new tag, Economic, Health care, Ireland, Pharmaceutical industry, Politics, Population, Research and development, United StatesAre economists bad for the economy?
This weekend’s Dublin Economic Workshop annual conference was a muted affair. See here, here, and here for samples of the coverage. Charts showing bubbles and crashes, as well as cautious forecasts for recovery after enduring fiscal pain for 3 or 4 more years, were the norm.
Three markedly different presentations were given in the Saturday morning [...]
TV3 Rant
Here’s my rant on TV3 about Ireland in 2050 earlier this week, and here’s a piece in the Irish Examiner about the book.
Ulysses Medal for James Smith
Well deserved. On the 15th of October 2009, UCD will award the Ulysses medal to Professor James Smith, former head of the Labour and Population Centre at RAND and two-time recipient of the National Institute of Aging Merit Award. Professor Smith’s lecture will take place in the Conway Lecture Theatre in the UCD Conway Institute [...]
DEW Conference: November 2nd
These policy conferences generally define the tone of the economic debate in Ireland for weeks afterwards. Those interested in the Irish economy should consider heading along for the third DEW Policy Conference.
The third DEW conference will take place on November 2nd between 2pm and 5.30pm in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, Golden Lane in Dublin [...]
What has posterity ever done for us?
The debate on how to deal with newly distressed property assets to save the real economy—that’s you and I—has crystallised around the rollout of the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA. NAMA’s remit is to overpay banks for bad loans, to allow the banks to resume normal operations of credit provision to businesses. NAMA will swop [...]
Tagged GeneralCould NAMA be Ireland’s largest Hotelier?
Here’s a piece I wrote for Hotel and Catering Review, trying to answer the question above. You’ll have to read the article as a .pdf though.
Wait a minute: just who are the middle classes getting the Snip?
An Bord Snip Nua’s report has generated a curious mix of reactionary hysteria, sober analysis, and spin. Everyone who had something to lose, be it their positions, pay or entitlements, came out against getting their share of the pie snipped in the Autumn budget. No one seems to be able to agree which of the [...]
Tagged Bord Snip, Bord Snip Nua, Child benefit, Employment, Ireland, Kemmy Business School, Middle class, University of Limerick