One could despair. All the major political parties are supporting another round of fiscal contraction, though they may differ on the balance of tax increases and public spending cuts. In this respect, Fianna Fail has won that particular battle, we are just fighting within the parameters they have set. There is seemingly no challenge to [...]

Sinn Féin launched their pre-budget submission yesterday with a press conference in Buswell’s hotel, and a document which it claimed would provide the road to economic recovery. Within the current debate dominated by the rethoric of slash and burn, it was good to find out that Sinn Féin are arguing against the strategy of cuts [...]

Originally published today on Progressive Economy.
Ever have one of those moments when you just know everyone else has got it wrong and you’ve got it right? When you say, I don’t care what the fashion is, showing off your brand of boxer shorts in public is plain daft? Well, have some sympathy then for [...]

He kicked off by saying if his officials knew he was here in my house, there’d be war. They thought I was a maverick. I took it as a compliment.
He got to the point quickly. He was sitting opposite me and he had a habit of looking around rather than catching my eye as if [...]

Today, UNITE the union launched their ‘Growing the economy:  A Programme for Economic Stimulus‘. It constitutes a fundamental challenge to the economic orthodoxy that dominates the current debate by outlining an alternative investment approach to the economic and fiscal crisis.
It’s premise is simple enough:  Fianna Fail’s deflationary budgetary policies are not working.  In fact, they [...]

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 [...]

Jim Stewart has come up with a provocative idea to stimulate one small part of the economy:
‘Some possible measures to stimulate spending could be vouchers which must be spent within a limited time period, or vouchers which can only be spent in hotels / guesthouses (accredited by Bord Failte). This latter policy has the advantage [...]

Over on the progressive-economy@tasc blog Sean O’Riain, Professor of Sociology in NUI, Maynooth has published perhaps one of the most significant pieces of commentary on the Irish economy in the run up to the April budget: Stimulus for Development. In it he updates the argument he put forward in his Exchequer Returns Emphasis the Need [...]

Labour is quickly approaching a crossroads. It is seemingly torn in two directions: a new stimulus strategy that prioritises rising unemployment and declining economic activity; or an accommodation with the orthodoxy, compromising within parameters laid down by the deflationists (or just as worse, paralysed at the crossroads unable to choose). The Labour Party conference provided [...]

In case you missed it Michael Taft was talking on Prime Time last night about the importance of maintaining capital projects in the National Development Plan in order to stimulate the economy. Taking the other point of view was ERSI economist Edgar Morgenroth, who argued that rather than money being put into the NDP it [...]