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Wednesday, Feb 8th 2012


About Michael Taft

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Articles by Michael Taft

Shock! Horror! McCarthy Vindicates Public Sector Efficiency! 20th July: The Recession Diaries

Noel Whelan wants you to read The Report. He wants you to read it now. Call in sick, dump the kids on grandma, kick the cat out - and read it. Mark Hennessy also wants you to read it - to know why you must take that bitter medicine. Ed Walsh wants you to read [...]

Penthouses, Basements and Nervous Sitting Rooms: July 14th The Recession Diaries

Over at Dublin Opinion, Conor McCabe is continuing his excellent analysis of contemporary class relations, this time using the CSO’s new National Employment Survey for 2007. He challenges the sloppy thinking that suggests we have a ‘middle-class’ majority, concluding that nearly two-thirds work in what can be properly called ‘working class’ occupations:
‘From the viewpoint of wages, [...]

Economic Shunning: July 6th The Recession Diaries

During the Great Depression, the British King announced he was cancelling the purchase of a royal yacht as a gesture of sympathy towards his beleaguered subjects. John Maynard Keynes claimed this was misguided. Instead of cancelling the order for his yacht, Keynes said the King should have purchased two yachts. His line of reasoning was [...]

Subsidising Thinking: July 3rd The Recession Diaries

The Irish Times can claim it is stimulating debate on important issues. After all, didn’t one of their columnists provoke debate on the ‘generosity’ or otherwise of our social welfare system? And isn’t that same columnist provoking a debate on job subsidies? What I find curious is the mode of provocation: rather than investigation, examination [...]

Histories At Dawn: June 30th The Recession Diaries

History is such a malleable thing. It can be twisted this way and that to support or oppose any contemporary position. Take An Bord Snip Nua - this is a grand thing altogether. How do we know this? Because, sure, its predecessor was such an outstanding success. Yes, it brought pain but it set the [...]

Dates with the Devil: The Recession Diaries June 28th

What would be your reaction if it could be shown that a set of policies would result in deepening the recession, increasing unemployment, reducing domestic demand (meaning more business closures) while having only a minimal effect on the fiscal deficit? What would you say to the political party or the Minister who offered you such [...]

The IMF Rules OK: The Recession Diaries June 25th

Great. Coming home from a few days break and there’s the IMF, holding open the cell door. The projections are worrying enough, though hardly new.  Still, to be reminded one more time that the economy is crashing through the double-digit barrier - it doesn’t really perk up your day. The real worry is the prescription, the [...]

Growing the Economy

Today, UNITE the union launched their ‘Growing the economy:  A Programme for Economic Stimulus‘. It constitutes a fundamental challenge to the economic orthodoxy that dominates the current debate by outlining an alternative investment approach to the economic and fiscal crisis.
It’s premise is simple enough:  Fianna Fail’s deflationary budgetary policies are not working.  In fact, they [...]

May 28th Lunchtime: The Recession Diaries

Over at Cedar Lounge Revolution, WBS is doing a good job tracking the ongoing campaign against Ireland’s borrowing capacity and, in particular, the performance of the National Treasury Management Agency. On a recent post, I agreed but received this challenge from barratree:
Michael, - I’ve yet to see you addressing the point that most people are [...]

May 25th Afternoon: The Recession Diaries

Boy, was Senator Fergal Quinn taken in. Or was he? In his recent column, ‘Getting people work a priority’ he attempts to make two real-life comparisons - one based on a letter he received and one from what he read in the paper. Senator Quinn forgot the first universal rule of life: don’t believe everything [...]

Sins of the Father

Sins of the Father:

Tracing the Decisions

That Shaped the Irish Economy,

by Conor McCabe

from The History Press

Now Available as an e-Book.

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