Exhuming Keynes is not enough

My last post on Slugger, which mapped three decades of slowing growth in the US was met with the response that I must be a Keynsian. I’m not. Actually I’m not an ‘anyone-ian’ but my views are more complicated than I have previously outlined on Slugger. Many of the things people believe about markets are actually not true. For example, 90 per cent of investment expenditures are drawn from operating profits, not stock. As a result of takeovers and buybacks …

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Thirty years of decline

The world recession isn’t simply a result of risky activity, it follows three decades of industrial stagnation disguised by the financialisation of Western economies. As the numbers reveal: Between 1975 and 1979 US annual GDP growth averaged 4.6 per cent. These were the years of president Jimmy Carter, widely ridiculed as ‘stagflationary’. Carter himself gave a speech in 1979 in response to the oil crisis saying as much, though it doesn’t actually use the word, and it went down in …

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The former Yugoslavia, secessionism and liberal warmongering

Just for a bit of a break from the budget(s), eh? States of independence: how liberal meddling destroyed both sovereignty and national liberation Proceedings are underway at the the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to make a deliberation on the legal status of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence. By the middle of 2010 the court will announce its decision on whether or not Kosovo is in fact a sovereign state. (1) Although the decision is in fact already a fait …

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South inches toward gay marriage – what about full secularisation?

Watching Pat Kenny last night on RTÉ One while reading my Twitter feed I was struck by something: my own Northern smugness. As an adopted Southerner (long story, very dull) I naturally assumed that the great advances the South has seen in recent decades meant that people here were, more or less, as secularised as they are in the North. It would appear not. Many comments appeared on my screen that mirrored those made by Kenny’s audience: people were shocked …

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Cross-border shopping trips emit tonnes of carbon

Retail Ireland, the group that represents the Irish retail sector, says that shopping in North is destroying the planet. Retail Ireland director Torlach Denihan said: “On the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit it is sobering that cross-border shopping trips in 2009 will result in the emission of 100,000 tonnes of carbon.” You wouldn’t just be desperate, would you now Torlach? Full report at InsideIreland.ie Remember folks, moving is evil. Stay at home, turn down the heating, switch …

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The spectre of sin taxes

With the Dublin government about to unleash a wildly unpopular budget on the population, it’s worth asking why we let governments get away with interfering six taxes – and just how drinking water and driving cars became sins.We all know that next week’s budget is going to be painful. We know this because the government keep telling us so. Among the various measures the government will implement in the hope of plugging the gaping hole in the public finances will …

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Destiny awaits

Fianna Fáil’s smoking dope but not inhaling, sorry, I mean gaining an MLA but not really, has been at the back of my mind all day. In fact, it would have been at the front of my mind were it not for the fact that I had to write something on the Murphy Report. I don’t think the move is insignificant. As I have written elsewhere, one might argue (and I do) that the move Northward post-settlement shows that Northern …

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Fianna Fáil “don’t have an MLA”

Following ‘Fianna Fáil arrives’, something is due from Fianna Fáil within the hour. Hard to say what, exactly, it will say but it will be interesting to read. It does look like the soldiers aren’t quite ready to open a Northern front just yet. Jason WalshJason Walsh is a journalist. jasonwalsh.ie

Bordering on ridiculous: striking, shopping and the absence of alternatives

Two hollow themes from Irish political dialogue have collided – the ‘patriotism’ of shopping in the South and the anti-public servant mood. The result? An even more pointless ‘debate’ about nothing An unusual news story hit the headlines on Tuesday, one that is unverifiable by any means: public sector employees were selfishly destroying the economy. Tuesday November 24 was a ‘national day of action’ for members of public sector unions. Understandably this issue was the news story of the day, …

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But they’re extremists, not like us

Musings elsewhere: “Sanctimonious distaste for the supposedly ‘outlying’ views of the ‘extremists’ mask the fact that both parties are as much a part of the endless peace processing project as their forebears in the UUP and SDLP. The growth of the once fringe parties does not represent a polarisation of politics as much as it represents a total retreat from actual politics into a primarily cultural space where loud but meaningless sham battles function as proxies for the conflict of …

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I don’t like this or that, but that’s just tough, isn’t it?

It’s not a peculiarly local phenomenon, but do the institutions of the peace process promote victimology? How long will it be before someone demands the creation of the Northern Ireland Hurt Feelings Commissioner?I’ll use myself as an example: I’m not overly fond of Orange marches, so what’s my solution to the ‘problem’? Simple. Let them march. It’s a question of freedom of assembly. People who are incensed by Orange parades are free to organise counter-demonstrations. Surely we can express our …

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What is an integrated Irish economy, anyway?

Following on from yesterday’s introductory post about the Southern economy, I have a question that I have never had a clear answer to anyway: just what on earth would an all-Ireland economy look like?Whatever did happen to the fantasy of an all-Ireland economy? Since the recession kicked-in politician after politician in the South has lined-up to bang the drum for shopping locally. Crossing the border, in particular, has become an act of treachery, at least according to some more swivel-eyed …

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Uncertain future for Belfast’s Jews

NESTLED BEHIND carefully pruned hedges on Belfast’s resolutely middle-class Somerton Road is an unexpected landmark. In a town where religion and politics have been intertwined stands the synagogue of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation, an unassuming modernist building that is home to a faith community that has been in the city for decades Funny story: I wrote and filed this article in April but it was bumped off the pages every time it was due to run. Events, dear boy, and …

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Wallowing in recession

There can be no doubt that Ireland’s economy is suffering badly, but are some people enjoying it too much? As this is my first official contribution to Slugger O’Toole I thought I would begin by bringing up some themes that would give people an idea of where I am coming from, politically speaking. It draws heavily on my own recent work. Finally, it’s only a think-piece, not a manifesto. Wallowing in recession To some degree the Irish border has always …

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New blogger: an introduction

As I have joined the Slugger team I thought I should introduce myself. Otherwise, this post is of no particular account. So, I am the latest addition to the Slugger team. My name is Jason Walsh and I am a freelance journalist based in Dublin. As a jobbing journalist of no particular account, I have contributed to the Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Daily Ireland, the Sunday Business Post, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the CS Monitor (Boston) and the Independent …

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