Profile for Mack
Latest posts from Mack (see all)
Mack has posted 207 times (0 in the last month).
Modern life is fragile
Fintan O’Toole - The chance of six specific Irish horses winning at Cheltenham on the same day last week was 1.5 million to one. But it happened. Or.. The probability of the results of the Euro 2012 qualifiers being exactly as they will turn out to be is extremely low. But it will happen. Or.. [...] more »
Ireland and default again
Yves Smith has a thought provoking article on her Naked Capitalism blog that I’ve only just got around to reading. It includes a useful, if cyncial, analysis of the raison d’être of the current stress tests / banking investigation being undertaken by BlackRock. Earth to base, this is a garbage in, garbage out exercise You [...] more »
Not sure how to vote next Friday? They’ve got an app for that…
Votomatic quizes you on a range of policy choices and then scores the parties for compatibility with your views. Give it a try My scores - FG 19, Lab 10, Greens 2, SF 1, FF -3 more »
“We are in some pickle now”
Vincent Browne tracks the history of Ireland’s banking crisis in yesterday’s Sunday Business Post, ending with what must be the biggest understatement of the new millennium (see title). He argues that the EU will not countenance a restructuring / default of debts run up Ireland’s banks. But getting rid of some or all Of the [...] more »
Breaking news: Belfast plane crashes at Cork airport
An RTE news story indicates that they have unconfirmed reports of 8 fatalities after a plane from Belfast crashed at Cork airport. Update - six confirmed fatalities, six people injured. From the report The Manx2 commuter flight, with 10 passengers and two crew, was en route from Belfast when it crashed in heavy fog at [...] more »
Eastern promises
It would appear that our Asian friends have confidence (and an interest) in the survival of the European project. Japan and China will help fund the European Financial Stability Fund that will be used to bailout European banks, sorry, I mean Ireland. With Japan pledging to buy 20% or more of the bonds that will [...] more »
The European view on insolvency
The new proposed European Stability Mechanism looks like it will come into force via a change to The Lisbon Treaty, and will avoid facing public vote by referendum. It provides a process for sharing losses with sovereign creditors in the case of national insolvency. (More details on that below). In yesterday’s FT, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, [...] more »
Ireland can’t afford to bail out European banks
I think this point is worth highlighting more clearly. Below – Simon Johnson ex-CEO of the IMF – on who is owed money by the Irish banks German banks are owed $139 billion, which is 4.2 percent of German G.D.P. British banks are owed $131 billion, or about 5 percent of Britain’s G.D.P. French banks [...] more »
Euro Crisis : History repeats
The Guardian report that - the Portuguese prime minister José Sócrates insists Portugal is under no pressue from EU states to accept a euro bailout. Meanwhile After Financial Times Deutschland reported eurozone nations and the European Central Bank were urging Portugal to follow Ireland and capitulate to financial aid, the office of the Portuguese prime [...] more »
Europe gets serious. May double the EFSF, may burn bank senior bond holders
The Wall Street Journal are speculating that the size of the EFSF may double to almost €1trn, if German opposition can be overcome. This is an effort to assure markets that Europe can bail out Spain if neccessary. Doubling the EFSF’s capacity to €880 billion would remove any doubt about whether the facility has enough [...] more »
Latest comments from Mack (see all)
Mack has commented 1,126 times (0 in the last month).
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Books
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Learning from 1798?: Northern Ireland’s Upcoming Decade of Commemorations
Last year, the Lilliput Press released a new extended edition of Tom Dunne’s Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize winning book, Rebellions: Memoir, Memory and 1798. First published in 2004, Dunne’s book provoked considerable controversy with its critique of the ‘commemorationist’ history that Dunne believed dominated the 1998 commemorations of the 1798 Rebellion. The book blasted the involvement [...] read our review » -
Have we Learned our own Lessons? Book Review of John Brewer’s Peace Processes
Northern Ireland’s peace process has been promoted as an international success story. The Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs has its Conflict Resolution Unit, which aims to disseminate the ‘lessons’ of the Northern Ireland peace process. And some of the prominent players in our peace process have travelled abroad to other troubled spots to share their [...] read our review »
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The Earl Bishop
Interesting BBC article on an upcoming presentation and talk [Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, 17 August] by lecturer and broadcaster Stephen Price on the subject of his new book – The Earl Bishop. The 18th Century ”Earl Bishop” was Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth Earl of Bristol and Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry. Hervey was also elected [...] read our review »
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Comment on Household Charge and the problem of unreformed and unaccountable local government
on 22 March 2012 at 5:16 pm
The charge is actually €100 not 200. It’s the non-ppr charge for Landlords brought in a few years back that is €200.
Very few are paying it at the moment. I think they are planning on bringing in a site valuation tax, which is fairer all round and argued for here -
http://sluggerotoole.com/2010/07/09/on-the-necessity-of-a-land-tax/
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Comment on Coalition contemplating a cultural shift towards employee ownership?
on 19 March 2012 at 9:36 pm
On the other hand I can think of large publicly traded corporations that singularly fail to innovate. The American automakers are good examples of this.
True, the Japanese and German auto-makers did. I absolutely agree with your point about central planning, top-down design and decision making has some role to play in society, but is completely unworkable as the primary economic process.
I guess not all socialists are central planners though (although it’s by far the most common form)- I don’t get the impression that is what Noam Chomsky envisions when he speaks or writes, for example. And I guess there is no rule that says that socialist ideas must be implemented primarily by the left. Bismarck thought pensions were socialist but an idea worthy of introduction all the same..
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Comment on Coalition contemplating a cultural shift towards employee ownership?
on 19 March 2012 at 8:26 pm
Probably, still leaving too much implicit.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this policy, it could work out very well, and as a fundamentally socialist idea being implemented by the right, may actually solve one of the problems with the way socialism has been implemented elsewhere in the past (e.g. USSR) in that it reduces innovation and leads to stasis..
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Comment on Coalition contemplating a cultural shift towards employee ownership?
on 19 March 2012 at 8:23 pm
Just noticing the similarity with a central tenet of Socialism.
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Comment on Coalition contemplating a cultural shift towards employee ownership?
on 19 March 2012 at 5:51 pm
Workers owning the means of production, I’m sure I’ve heard that before..
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Comment on #af12 “No. No interest, feck ’em.”
on 6 March 2012 at 12:17 pm
IT is booming in Dublin, to the extent that most new hires are immigrants to Ireland.
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Comment on For those who think Ireland should follow Argentina’s default example…
on 28 February 2012 at 10:19 am
Peter Matthews outlined how the central bank could just write off up to €75bn in debt created to bail out the Irish banks (in line with ECB policy for protecting the broader European banking system). This would not even constitute a default.
Here ->
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/that-promissory-note-could-literally-be-torn-up-3031903.html
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Comment on Is my education system better than your education system? Finland vs the world.
on 4 January 2012 at 2:13 pm
There is streaming by ability in many schools in the south (not sure if it is universal), beyond ordinary and honours level testing.
If streaming is conducted on a per subject basis it has the advantages highlighted by antamadan above. The same person could be in the top stream in English, but a lower one more appropriate to their abilities in Maths or French.
I’ve noticed some attempts to attack or rollback streaming, on the basis that it is elitist lately (and the argument goes not effective).
I think refining streaming and ensuring fluid mobility between streams (e.g. potential movements every term if an improvement is shown) would be much better.
That’s much less final, and less universal across all subjects than the 11+ exam (which doesn’t even test aptitude in many subjects – or at least didn’t -e.g. languages).
It might be better aggregating schools by age. Rather than a locale having two or more competing schools, have two or more schools that focus on different age groups. That would give economy of scale at each age group. (I.e. more 12/13/14 and 15/16/17/18 year olds per school would mean more classes per subject, more sports teams, more extra curricular activities etc).
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Comment on Is my education system better than your education system? Finland vs the world.
on 3 January 2012 at 12:18 pm
The Atlantic on a similar theme ->
“The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/#.Tv4NA-e7HkY.mailto
Can’t help but think they are drawing the wrong conculsions with that tag line.
Equality of opportunity is itself excellent, but facilitating the pursuit of excellence is also important too.
My bet is that the big improvements you see from enhanced equality of opportunity come from raising the level at the bottom (much the way most of the increase in life expectancy is due to a reduction in infant mortality).
It should be possible to learn from the Scandinavian experience and enhance it.
If you were to consider the application of the same model in school sports, we could improve every child’s fitness and life-time attritude towards physical exercise, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of limiting opportunities for gifted athletes to fully develop their abilities within the system.
I’m not convinced that providing one need exclude the other..
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Comment on Is my education system better than your education system? Finland vs the world.
on 2 January 2012 at 11:02 pm
That’s all true – most of the better kids in that situation will find other ways and activities (while the inverse isn’t true for the weakest kids). The American family being a case in point (looking outside the state school system so their daughter could continue where she was). Ideally it would be good if those needs could be met within the state education system.
Some bright kids might suffer though. E.g. Get bored in class and begin to become disruptive.
If someone was doing an objective analysis of education systems it could still be a potential con (in contrast to very many pros) in the Scandivian model.
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