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 [...]

You probably missed this piece on RTE:
RTE Reporter (on the rooftop of a manufacturing plant, helicopter in the background): We are with Tuck McGrath, CEO of Irish Enterprises. Mr. McGrath, why are you closing your company down and moving to the Far East.
Mr. McGrath: We had a great company - high [...]

It must be great to be a spokesperson for employers. You can just plonk yourself in front of a microphone and say anything that comes into your head, no matter how outrageous or unsubstantiated. On Thursday’s Morning Ireland Mark Fielding of ISME was being interviewed together with UNITE’s Jerry Shanan. Mr. Fielding [...]

It was only a matter of time before the business sector opened up another front in the recession wars. Hamburger king Pat McDonagh of Supermac has accused the Government of ’strangling entrepreneurship’ and ‘criminalising business’. And just how is the vile Government doing this?
‘Bureaucracy, legislation and regulation’.
But Mr. McDonagh is just getting started.
McDonagh [...]

I have a friend with a strange sense of humour. His email says only ‘Enjoy the weekend’. But attached is a news statement from the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME). Some friend. ISME and the Small Firms Association are in competition with each other over who can best represent small/medium [...]

It is a well-known fact that public sector workers are (a) greedy, (b) not productive (in fact they’re anti-productive), (c) over-paid and under-worked with big fat pensions, and (d) the single most important cause behind our recession and the poor showing of the Irish football team.  How do I know all this? Because I read the [...]

If it wasn’t great over the last few years, how much worse can it get?  Recently, we have had to endure a mish-mash of confused debates over the ‘middle class’, the ‘coping class’, the ‘aspiring class’.  I’ve gone over this ground before but in these recession days it is always well to remind ourselves of [...]