The TASC open letter published in the Irish Times on Monday is still providing plenty of food for thought. Focusing on the section of the letter that discusses the prospect of ‘restructuring taxation and expenditure in a progressive and expansionary manner’ Michael Taft expands on what this might entail in terms of taxation.
The phrase ‘fiscal [...]

And so the battle is on. The cuts to social welfare and child benefit in Budget 2010 saw the government cross the Rubicon to a place where no ‘right’ is safe anymore. That means that the long-time target of employers’ groups, business lobbies and vested interest politicians - the minimum wage - is back on [...]

The Government has a plan. And, yes, you should be worried. The Government’s approach to fiscal stabilisation - namely, a deflationary approach - is often portrayed as ‘the only option’. Of course, it isn’t. There are other approaches, in particular those based on boosting investment and output in order to grow employment and, so, the [...]

IBEC’s recent quarterly review should give us pause. They are one of the few groups who attempt to project economic growth up to 2013 - and the numbers are not inspiring. They suggest that Government projections are wholly optimistic and that, on current trends, the 2013 target date to bring our public finances into order [...]

However, given the enormous scale of the problem, it would be fanciful to suppose that it can be solved without at least some reductions in public spending, and anyone who doubts this cannot really be regarded as a serious participant in the public discourse on the matter.’
Well, that put us in our place. Not only [...]

Over at Cedar Lounge Revolution, WBS is doing a good job tracking the ongoing campaign against Ireland’s borrowing capacity and, in particular, the performance of the National Treasury Management Agency. On a recent post, I agreed but received this challenge from barratree:
Michael, - I’ve yet to see you addressing the point that most people are [...]

The progressive economy@tasc blog now have a number of posts up on the April Supplementary (or Emergency) budget, which might provide ILR readers with some useful analysis of its potential impact, strategy and what it might mean for the wider economy in the years to come.
First to post was Terrence McDonough, who has written a [...]

A good friend made a bet with me in January. He wagered the economy would contract by 10 percent or more by the end of the year. I gladly took the bet. But he rang me yesterday wanting to know if I wanted to pay up now. For the news that the economy contracted by [...]

So, the Brians are asking for advice. We should not begrudge them. It is time for all ‘good patriots’ to step forward and give our faltering government a helping hand. For we are now, effectively, looking into the third budget in five months. So where do we start?
No better place than with Sean O’Riain’s piece [...]

Goodbody Stockbrokers is predicting a decline in GDP this year of 6% unsettling public finances. Irish Nationwide has been downgraded by Moody’s to one notch above junk. Ireland is bankrupt. More specifically, its financial institutions are bankrupt, its government is bankrupt and, unfortunately, many of its businesses and citizens are bankrupt. But this is not [...]