Hmmm… Kicking off, Tim sings a brief blog hymn to the boon of flexible exchange rates… Brad de Long has da historic pictures…- Not a blog, but two bloggers letting themselves go and demonstrating that the solipcism that can swallow otherwise highly intelligent individuals when they end up talking on national television about nothing – more or less – than each other… The old Belfast enjoinder to a fight ‘bare bellies in the car park’ comes to mind…
– Matthew Taylor of the RSA asks the topical and useful question: “does the economic crisis point to a future in which expertise and authority are even more widely dispersed or to the reverse: the need for a renewal and reassertion of hierarchical oversight?” And he concludes:
Ours is a world where the capacity to tap into the wisdom of crowds is matched by the catastrophic dangers of capitulating before the stupidity of crowds. Regulation cannot work without participation and consent; collaboration must be guided (as it is in Wikipedia)
– Libertas in France breaks against the Turks joining the European Union…
– With the fall of the Czech government coming halfway through its Presidency, reckons Dominika Pszczó?kowska, raises questions about the Lisbon Treaty regardless of what happens in Ireland…
– And, eh, Malc, I’m not even going to go there…
– And Gerard’s in stonking form after speaking to the Irish Banking Association; long term deflation is likely to bring no one any good news:
It’s all well and good giving someone in arrears with their mortgage a few months ‘grace’ on the repayments to get themselves sorted (as most banks will if the borrower is behaving reasonably). The problem is when a few months is not enough because the labour market is shut down and the economy is contracting (as it is at present). The danger is a vicious circle – a debt deflation spiral – whereby the ‘hard facts’ of debt meet the ‘increasingly pessimistic opinion’ of property prices.
– And one for book marking at the Irish Economy blog, Ronald Greenspan’s presentation on Irish Economic Recovery… Lots of lovely soothing things in there, but the things that leaps out at me is the FDI figure as a proportion of GNP: eighty one per cent! That’s one that should be read against recent delivery for the full impact…
– Bock lams into an ill judged intervention on the #Cowangate scandal from John Waters in the Irish Times (though if you read Eoin, the question of whether an actual crime was committed is far from clear cut)…
– Though German Law seems clear enough to end the Tee Shirt fun at Irish Election (wouldn’t that have been a nice wee earner)… Allan tweets: “Irish Election have Willie O’Dea and Mary Harney tees for sale there for ages”.. Ah, but the Americans don’t care apparently…
– Meanwhile, Twitter has been alive with the chat about #picturegate And screenshots of today’s Dublin papers…
– Meanwhile, Jason has a brief a bluffer’s guide to Irish political cant in a crisis…
– The Fine Gaels have a new logo, released slightly ahead of their Ard Fheis next week (we have a blogger space if we can find a reliable volunteer)…
– Kudos to Mark for getting a story I went in search but could not find yesterday… Sir Fred and the retiring MLA…
– Oh, and Benedict is in trouble with the Lancet… Will notes:
…by saying that condoms exacerbate the problem of HIV/AIDS, the Pope has publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on this issue.’
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
