There’s been a lot of discussion about whether 2012 will see property prices hit the ‘floor’.  The Government and NAMA are doing their bit to help to stimulate house purchases through budgetary measures and negative equity insurance schemes.  Unfortunately, there has been little debate about the optimal level of house property prices.  Few have been [...]

A previous SEB article examined the profit rate in the Irish economy which is rising even though the economy continues to contract. Yet at the same time Ireland’s level of investment is falling. Corporate incomes - profits - are rising even though total economic activity is falling. Arithmetically, this can only occur by reducing the income [...]

In Ireland all discussion on public sector pay, wage coordination and labour cost competitiveness ignores the role of collective bargaining in a democratic society. Over 80 percent of employees in the Eurozone are covered by collective wage agreements. The type of wage coordination is generally described as multi-employer bargaining. This means that wages are set [...]

Remember that statement - how during the boom years we all ‘partied’ as a nation? Remember those prescriptions - how we had to cut back our living standards, probably back to 2003; in order to restore competitiveness? Remember how we were told that we were living beyond our means and now we had to purge [...]

For households in work, if they manage to hang on to their jobs, it is going to be a difficult few years ahead if the projections for wage increases is anything to go by. This is something rarely referred to when Government or independent forecasters produce their numbers. In some ways this is understandable - [...]

Open letter sent by the Coalition to Protect the Lowest Paid to Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation about his proposal to reduce the incomes of workers covered by the JLCs.
Dear Minister Bruton,
We are calling upon you to release the economic analysis your Department has undertaken that has informed your proposals for [...]

A rainy Sunday morning; it brings many thoughts - of outdoor activities cancelled, indoor DIY projects advanced, no football and letting Garibaldy go through the Sunday Independent so that we don’t have to suffer that fate (save for Gene Kerrigan who should always be read in print or on-line).
It also brings to mind the [...]

Amendments to wage-setting mechanisms must protect aggregate demand
The following statement has been issued by members of the TASC Economists’ Network, comprising economists, economic analysts and social scientists:
“We broadly welcome the Report of the Independent Review of Employment Regulation Orders and Registered Employment Agreement Wage-Setting Mechanisms. In particular, the recommendation that the basic JLC framework should [...]

Michael Burke argues on Progressive Economy that IBEC’s attack on the JLC wage setting mechanisms in order to drive pay lower ‘is not simply morally indefensible. It is economically illiterate’.
Looking at the main sectors of the economy: households, corporates and goverments in terms of saving and investment he points out that in a normally [...]

Cut people’s dole to reduce unemployment - did the people who write these OECD policy prescriptions learn their craft at Krusty’s Clown College? Of course, we’ve run into some curious analysis from the OECD before - especially their argument that Ireland’s housing boom was ok, it was just a product of demographic [...]