It seems that nationalisation is all the rage these days. The takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, if it does not put paid to the notion that housing finance is too important to be left to the private sector, at least suggests that it needs that proverbial ‘heavy hand’ of the state. [...]

In a previous post, I suggested Turlough O’Sullivan suffered from an unfortunate quirk - he couldn’t bring himself to saying the words ‘low-paid’ with inserting the rider ‘so-called’. I proposed the appropriate therapy - read the facts. But a reader of my blog, Yvonne, has diagnosed another malady Turlough suffers from - innumeracy.
Prior to re-entering [...]

IBEC’s Turlough O’Sullivan has an unfortunate ideological quirk but it is treatable.  It seems he can’t say the words ‘low-paid’ without inserting ’so-called’ before them.  In fact, he has trouble using the actual words ‘low-paid’, only managing to say ‘lower-paid’. Still, his condition dictates that he still inserts ’so-called’ before them.  Mark Hennessy describes this condition [...]

From the American political blogosphere - an interesting concept (actually the religious-political-progressive blogosphere). Yes, American religious-progressive.
With all the European media focused on Governor Sarah Palin and her supporters (Rush Limbaugh calling on all those who believe in ‘babies, guns and Jesus’ to support her), it’s important to keep in mind that religion in America [...]

I don’t know Dr. Gerry Burke.  Were he to walk past me on the street, I wouldn’t know him.  So, please, someone point him out.  I want to buy him a pint.  For Dr Burke has been going around getting himself disliked in certain circles.  He has made a complaint to the Competition Authority, [...]

There are any number of issues that should be tackled in recession times. I won’t list them, you know them. But bashing EU regulations is not one of them, especially when you indulge in that great Tory, ‘Little Englander’ chicken-little past-time of fabricating regulations that don’t exist, just to have a bash.
And [...]

Enough is enough is enough. Our telecommunications industry is being turned into dog meat and we are powerless. The current owners, the home boys Down Under at Babcock & Brown, have seen their share price plummet by 90 percent over the last year, they’ve dumped their top executives, they’re groaning under debt and nobody [...]

Over at Dublin Opinion they’re calling the leader of the Opposition terrible names - names I never read in the Bible.  What exactly did Enda Kenny say to deserve this?  Well, he said a lot. 4,000 words worth at the Humbert Summer School.  Much of it was taken up with calling the Taoiseach terrible names [...]

Truly, a tale of two economic cities.  First, the Irish Times heads an article ‘Wage Increases Higher than EU Average in 2007′.  Citing a recent European Industrial Relations Observatory survey it stated:
‘Irish workers enjoyed higher wage increases than their counterparts across Europe in 2007 . . ‘
Well, actually they didn’t.  The report has it in black [...]

Yes, yes and yes again.
‘What Ireland did in the 1990s is something that had never really been done before by anyone. We imported development. Most modern economies plugged foreign direct investment into an existing set of skills, traditions, resources. But, to an overwhelming extent, we depended on the attraction of fully-formed global corporations, who [...]