For households in work, if they manage to hang on to their jobs, it is going to be a difficult few years ahead if the projections for wage increases is anything to go by. This is something rarely referred to when Government or independent forecasters produce their numbers. In some ways this is understandable - [...]

Philip Lane’s thoughtful article in the Sunday Business Post helps clarify the debate. For while he argues for further fiscal contraction, this should not distract us from the underlying point of difference between those who support (more) austerity, and those who support an expansionist approach. Disputes over fiscal policy can mask more fundamental differences in economic [...]

The ESRI has produced a report on deficit and debt levels up to 2015 which has moved many to claim if we just stay the austerity course we will emerge from the forest of fiscal dark into the valley of economic repose. If you haven’t yet, first readMichael Burke’s critique of the ESRI report. Here, I [...]

Gene Kerrigan is a little dubious about claims of Ireland’s ‘unexpected economic recovery‘. The article by David Vines and Max Watson of Oxford University, which first appeared in the Financial Times, went viral Irish-style, reprinted in the Irish Times and Independent and featuring on numerous current affairs programmes. And why not? They claim the markets have [...]

What if we bought a modern telecommunications system, bringing Next Generation Broadband to every household and business in the country?
- What if we purchased a state-of-the-art waste and water system to secure an increasingly scarce resource?
- What if we provided one-on-one intensive tutorials for all those with literacy and numeracy problems that keep [...]

The recent Central Bank quarterly report confirms (as if we needed confirmation) that the economy remains in slow bleed mode. That they have revised downwards key domestic indicators is in keeping with other forecasters. We have an economy that is spinning its wheels in a deflationary trough, with no sign of relief in the short-term.
If [...]

What a government does with an unexpected windfall says as much about its economic priorities as what it does when faced with a cash shortage. Whether the interest rate cut was the result of the Government’s negotiating skills or just a by-product of the EU’s attempt to prevent Greece from crashing and Italy with it, [...]

A neighbour described to me a local community meeting where it was announced that the local Garda station would be closed. Why, the residents asked? A local councillor answered: ‘Because of the EU-IMF bailout.‘ Of course, closure of Garda stations are not in the EU-IMF Memorandum of Understanding. But that’s not the point, is it?
It [...]

Yes, we got a pat on the head. Yes, as Stephen Kinsella put it, there was a ‘nothing to see here, keep moving,’ quality to the EU-IMF’s performance report. And, yes, the IMF is forecasting that Ireland, under the current programme, won’t repair its finances by 2015, 2016 or potentially [...]

There is something a little unsettling about the Finance Minister’s exhortation that we all go out and spend; namely, that the analysis he has received from his advisors is so wide of the mark that it makes a mockery of his plea.
On the surface, there would appear to be a lot of [...]