Tagged By Irish Economy
The Disappointment of Unemployment Blackspots
When the unemployment figures were released yesterday, showing the highest levels since 1993, Glas Securities wrote a note that described the situation as ‘disappointing’. Well, that’s a word for it. I could think of other, more…
Opening Up a New Debate over Social Insurance
Long-time readers of this site will know that I’ve been hammering away for some time at our low level of social insurance. Minister for Social Protect, Joan Burton, TD, has also started making noises on this…
Splashing the Water
First there was Claiming our Future with its bold but common-sensical proposals to promote growth and equity in the economy. Now we have the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) laying down a new fiscal framework to pursue…
Claiming a Better Future
Over the last four years we’ve heard the same mantra repeated on a daily basis: there is no alternative. Claiming our Future (CoF) challenges that dismal chant with the launch of its ‘Plan B: There is…
Race to save euro will follow ‘Grexit’ – Willem Buiter
Does Paddy Power consult with Willem Buiter, the coiner of the obnoxious term ‘Grexit’, or other high profile financial commentators when calculating the odds of when Greece will leave the Euro? If so, I’d say…
Protest Against the Anglo Promissory Note Stitch up: Bank of Ireland AGM, June 18th, Dun Laoghaire
PROTEST AGAINST THE ANGLO PROMISSORY NOTE STITCH UP: BANK OF IRELAND EGM ROYAL MARINE HOTEL, DUN LAOGHAIRE MONDAY 18th JUNE, From 8.30 – 9.30am on Monday, there will be a protest outside the EGM at…
The ESRI Paper – Now You See It, Now You Don’t
Well, that was peculiar. An ESRI working paper that estimated the cost of going to work was published made the top story on RTE Six One news and then was withdrawn only a few minutes after…
The Tide is Rising, the Boat is Leaking
After one year in office we can now see how the Government has fared with unemployment. The data is not encouraging at all. Since the 1st quarter of 2011, when we swapped governments, Fine Gael and…
Down Down Down We Go
The debate is falling even deeper down the rabbit-hole. We’ve been promised a bank-debt deal (if only the ECB and the German Christian Democrats, CDU, would play in our sandbox) and stimulus through European funds…
Draghi says NO to Bank Debt writedown after Irish Yes vote! Well, what did you expect?
“The yes vote shows that the Irish people consider fiscal consolidation and fiscal stability a basic pillar for growth and for further European integration. But I don’t think there was ground or any statement for…
Pratap Chatterjee | Bailing out Germany: The Story Behind the European Financial Crisis
Pratap Chatterjee | Bailing out Germany: The Story Behind the European Financial Crisis Peter Böfinger, an economic advisor to the German government, put his finger on it when he told Der Spiegel last year: “[The…
Why Europe should fear Fine Gael-like ‘reasonableness’ much, much more than it fears Syriza
The establishment view in Europe is that the problem is too much debt (by profligate countries like Greece) and, therefore, that the solution must involve (a) austerity and (b) structural reforms (which increase the competitiveness…
The debt crisis and the fiscal treaty referendum in Ireland
This article originally appeared in Transnational Institute. The Irish debt catastrophe arose from a massive increase in borrowing during the 2000s on the part of Irish banks: the 6 main Irish banks borrowed €15 billion from abroad…


