Wednesday, May 16th 2012
The RTE Prime Time programme last night contained some of the most misleading (to put it mildly) presentation of facts and subsequent analysis to have been aired in a long time. Make no mistake about it: we are being prepared for the economic abattoir. And if you need any proof that the Left is rapidly [...]
Stay away from bad banks and risk insurance | Karl Whelan
The government should avoid the bad bank model, which seems be gaining ground in government. The bad bank idea is attractive to bankers because it allows them to pass all the potential losses incurred when loans for over-valued assets are written down to the tax [...]
US Gov making the same mistakes as the Japanese | Adam Posen
"Pretending that distressed assets are worth more than they actually are today for regulatory purposes persuades no one besides the regulators, and just gives the banks more taxpayer money to spend down, and more time to impose a credit crunch.
These kind of half-measures to [...]
Paul Sweeney, Economic advisor to ICTU, got to shake the hand of the 5th most powerful man in the world, Jean Claude Trichet, yesterday - although he was a little reluctant to do so.
In a new post on the progressive-economy@tasc blog Paul explains his reluctance.
“Here was a very powerful man in a world economy which [...]
As a welcome to the new TASC economic blog progressive-economy@tasc and to acknowledge the first year of Irish Left Review all this week we are publishing one post every day from the new blog. In the final one today we are publishing a post by Peter Connell.
Last week David Begg, in outlining ICTU’s 10 [...]
Report on gay marriage in Ireland
MarriagEquality's report in pdf: A staggering 81%, or eight out of ten people believe that all people living in Ireland should receive equal treatment from the state regardless of whether they are lesbian, straight or gay. Indeed, six out of ten people believe that denying marriage to lesbians and gay [...]
LRB · Perry Anderson: An Entire Order Converted into What It Was Intended to End
Perry Anderson is looking back at the past decade of Italian politics. Some fascinating information here, including the way that electoral democracy has changed, and how contrary to expectations, Berlusconi did not at the beginning bring about a more authoritarian state. [...]
The perversion of humanitarian activities | unsettling economics
The United States has a long history of using humanitarian ventures as a cover for promoting its own self-interest. Here is an examplefrom the early 20th century regarding Herbert Hoover’s relief work following World War I. Andelman, David A. 2008. A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price [...]
Financial Implosion and Stagnation - Monthly Review
John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff on the economic crisis. Its the most thorough historical analysis of the crisis around, but the conclusion is the kicker: "In the 1930s Keynes decried the growing dominance of financial capital, which threatened to reduce the real economy to “a bubble on a [...]
As a welcome to the new TASC economic blog progressive-economy@tasc and to acknowledge the first year of Irish Left Review all this week we are publishing one post every day from the new blog. Today’s post is by David Jacobson.
I can’t help wondering why the people whose theories are responsible for the current crisis continue [...]
