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Friday, Sep 5th 2008


Archive for the ‘Corporate Finance’ Category

Denis O’Brien and the “Little People”

In a letter to the Irish Times on the 16th of August written in response to Denis O’Brien’s opinion piece in that paper prescribing what the Irish government should do to rectify the downturn in the economy, Macdara Doyle of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions wrote the following:

“Madam, Not even the combined […]

July 31st Afternoon: The Recession Diaries

Did anyone catch the curious symmetry? On the day that unemployment, once again, shot up, AIB announced their half-yearly profits. Two different worlds on this small island.
Not that there weren’t attempts to show that these different worlds are experiencing the same thing. The Irish Times headlines: AIB Profits Fall. And […]

July 20th Afternoon: The Recession Diaries

What better way to spend a lazy afternoon than reading National Competitiveness Council reports, in particular its submission to the Commission on Taxation? The NCC is full of information but they do have a particular agenda and damn the facts. For instance, Ireland’s low tax rate has driven
‘ . . . . entrepreneurship, […]

July 17th Afternoon: The Recession Diaries

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 - […]

Corporate Schadenfreude

There is plenty in the news today about Jim Flavin’s decision to step down as executive chairman of DCC, on the foot of :
“a new legal manoeuvre against the company by the official enforcer of corporate law, Paul Appleby, who wants the High Court to appoint inspectors to investigate how it sold a major stake […]

Latest Essays

The Many Faults of Co-Location

The simplistic idea behind co-location - to create extra space for public patients in public hospitals by transferring the... More »

Lisbon and Immigration: Why Ireland Voted No

The category ‘immigrant’ has been systematically substituted for the category ‘worker’, only to be supplanted in its turn by... More »

Latest Articles

Class and Ireland - Part 1

It is not the poverty
Of soil in Leitrim that makes me raise my hat
To fools with fifty pounds in... More »

September 3rd Morning: The Recession Diaries

IBEC’s Turlough O’Sullivan has an unfortunate ideological quirk but it is treatable.  It seems he can’t say the words... More »