In these recession days we will be inundated with a carnival numbers and percentages. They will come so thick and fast it will be almost impossible to deal with every sleight-of-hand and three-card trick. But we have to start setting the record straight somewhere so I want to start with Fine Gael’s manipulative use [...]

Ah, the haute bourgeoisie - I know the old Scotsman warned us against letting them talk to each other. This is wise counsel but I have found that they can be amazingly open, almost innocent in their discussions. Take the Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers July: never mind the amusing language - [...]

Retraining is all the political rage. To deal with rising unemployment and slowing job creation, the opposition parties are demanding a programme of retraining - in particular, those being laid off in the construction sector. No one, of course, is opposed to that. It makes sense. Yes, let’s retrain and retrain [...]

Here’s a thought courtesy of Cllr. Eric Byrne - a suggestion so common-sensical its’ frightening. Immediately after Bernard McNamara did a runner on the PPPs in Dublin city, Cllr. Byrne proposed that the City Council scrap all such ‘partnership’ proposals and do the following:
Dublin City Council already owns the sites in question. The Council [...]

The Small Firms Association (SFA) has looked deep into the problems of the economy and has come up with a solution: cut people’s wages. Not just cut, but do a right machete job on them. And not just any ol’ wages, but the wages of the lowest paid in society.
Wow, that’s a recipe [...]

Sometimes, it’s the little things that get up your wick. The Sunday Business Post produced one of those little calculations to suggest how expensive it is, how draining on our pockets it is, to increase public sector pay:
‘Each 1 per cent rise in the public pay bill costs the government almost €200 million.’
Geez, that [...]

 
Our man from Ongar, Leo Varadkar, TD, is in madness mode. At a debate on the Future of Social Partnership at the Young Fine Gael Summer School he demanded:
‘ . . . a moderate pay deal that taxpayers can afford. . . This must include major concessions by the unions on business competition.’
Now, [...]

What do you call this? Eamon Gilmore, TD read out in the Dail a statement by Brian Cowen, TD from 2004 when the latter was Minister for Finance. Mr. Cowen was explaining why Ireland was finding it difficult to reach the Overseas Aid Development target of 0.7% of GNP.
‘The problem here is we [...]

Friday morning and I’m looking forward to the weekend and hopefully catching a few rays.  A friend, however, sends me a copy of the Goodbody report - the most pessimistic forecast yet.  It’s already raining.Goodbody predicts the economy will decline by 2.2 per cent this year but the good news is that next year, [...]

ICTU is playing some hardball. Recently, David Begg suggested that inflation could go as high as 6.5 per cent. He’s probably not far off the mark. Today’s CSO’s figures show inflation running at 5 per cent - up a half a per cent since last month Even the European HICP [...]