Mack

If so, Ronan Lyons has an anonymous survey for you. He’s attempting to discern what is actually happening with (southern) Irish wages – Are incomes rising or falling? Have your say! ——————– Meanwhile RTE report that an investigation by Swiss bank UBS has found that Dubliners take home the fourth highest pay, net of taxes and social security in the world. MackNo bio, some books worth reading – The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves – Matt Ridley . Crisis Economics: …

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There appears to be incredibly little clarity when it comes to Irish Economic statistics. Today over on irisheconomy.ie Aedin Doris asks “Where are the wage cuts?”. I might scream and shout – “here!” Having taken a 10% pay cut last year (partially re-instated for next year, 3% so far), but my industry isn’t even included in the figures she’s analysing. In fact the CSO figures she based her post on cover less than 1/6 of the workforce (according to Ronan …

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Over at progressive-economy.ie Nat O’Connor has been crunching the numbers from the latest daft report – As noted previously, the Rent Supplement maximum payment will cover a significantly different proportion of average rents, depending on what part of the country you live in. So people in some areas are more likely to be squeezed into poorer accommodation and/or to make further top-up payments from their social welfare than are their equivalents in other areas, by the mere chance of what …

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Ex-IMF director and blogger (on Nouriel Roubini’s Global Economic Monitor) Simon Johnson argues that while China has been making investments which boost the productive capacity of the real economy, the USA (and this thesis would apply to most Anglophone Western states) has allowed the financial sector to commandeer an ever greater proportion of economic activity. This growth comes not as a result of new, innovative investment (he cites ATMs, Credit Cards and the ability to hedge as positive financial productivity …

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Way back in March Sarah Carey wrote an article for the Irish Times for which she has been pilloried on left-leaning websites ever since. Economist Michael Taft pulled you up on this ‘When asked who should pay tax so that there’s enough money to fund the most generous social welfare payments in the EU, we are back to – you’ve guessed it – the tax exiles.’ But today economist Constantin Gurdgiev argues you were right (sort of – Ireland has …

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Bloomberg report that The euro region’s economy barely contracted in the second quarter as Germany and France unexpectedly returned to growth, suggesting Europe’s worst recession since World War II is coming to an end. … “There is a more-than-decent chance that euro-zone economic activity has now hit a bottom and will expand again in the third quarter, as many other economies follow Germany and France out of recession,” said Martin van Vliet, senior economist at ING Bank in Amsterdam. “However, …

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(Or NAMA versus a Good Bank) Richard Bruton’s blog outlines Fine Gael’s alternative to NAMA. Instead of purchasing toxic assets from the banks at a discount, the FG plan would leave them where they are. They would give the banks 16 months to restore their balance sheets or face administration (this ain’t gonna happen for most of them, but happily the banking guarantee would have run out by then). In order to ensure that business and households have continued access …

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In the Guardian Andrew Simms has been arguing in favour of a setting a maximum wage as a function of the lowest wage within an organisation. One of the fathers of modern banking, JP Morgan, believed that to motivate people you didn’t need a ratio of more than 10 between the highest and lowest paid. This is common knowledge in management school, but seemingly ignored in the workplace. This would create two good incentives #1 It would create an incentive …

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Long time thepropertypin.com contributor and financial industry insider “Geckko” sums up NAMA as a lose / lose deal for tax payers. So NAMA buys these assets, but the question is how much to pay? Remember, they aren’t worth what the banks claim they are. So NAMA (i.e. the tax payer) is facing two options. 1. Pay the true market value that reflects the fact that these loans will never be repaid in full (because the people who borrowed the money …

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Paul Graham, tech entrepreneur and founder of y-combinator a company that funds and supports tech startups (including Limerick lads, Patrick and John Collison of Auctomatic) is the guest on the latest EconTalk. Interesting discussion on how to foster tech innovation, and also how not to do it. Paul Graham – EconTalk Lessons for Ireland as we strive to build a next generation knowledge economy? The Innovation Island Ireland’s knowledge economy needs a rethink Innovation, The Venturesome Economy and Ireland MackNo …

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NAMA as a picture Bailouts demotivator from Despair MackNo bio, some books worth reading – The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves – Matt Ridley . Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance -Nouriel Roubini, Stephen Mihm

David Begg, leader of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (board member of the Irish Central Bank, Aer Lingus and member of the Irish Times Trust) has kicked of a debate on the fundamental direction of Ireland’s response to the fiscal crises, in todays Irish Times. He argues against the current deflationary policies, in particular spending cuts – although tax rises are also deflationary, perhaps even to a greater degree. The point is that we know that pro-cyclical deflationary policies …

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We discussed the Singaporean Health System recently on Slugger. They’ve been discussing the US Health System on Reddit for a while now. For me, this settles the debate – My wife recently had a baby, this is the bill… MackNo bio, some books worth reading – The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves – Matt Ridley . Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance -Nouriel Roubini, Stephen Mihm

Growing up in Northern Ireland I readily absorbed the deeply ingrained belief that public services in the north were superior to those in the south. It was an article of faith for me, until I moved south, that health, education and social security were all better in the north. Reality dawned slowly. We’ve discussed the differences in social security many times on Slugger – my southern parents-in-law get a state pension worth around twice that which my northern parents receive. …

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Colm McCarthy’s Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes (An Bord Snip, Nua) report was released yesterday, just in time for the Dail recess. It proposes €5.3bn worth of cuts in public spending, the government is sure to face stiff resistance in attempting to implement them, with RTE reporting that Union IMPACT are threatening widespread industrial action. Framing the debate The need for spending cuts and tax rises due to the collapse in Ireland’s bubble boosted tax revenues …

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RTE Report that the Department of Health estimate that 1 million Irish people will contract Swine Flu this autumn and winter, with a current estimated mortality rate of 1 per 200 cases this may mean 5,000 fewer Irish people come next spring. While the mortality rate is disputed, partially on the basis that many infected patients will never see a doctor – one wonders if unreported cases also figure in the Department of Health estimate. The Department of Health has …

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BUNREACHT NA hÉIREANN CONSTITUTION OF IRELAND Article 7 The national flag is the tricolour of green, white and orange. — The orange of our flag is the orange of the Orange order. — Although a tiny minority there are Orangemen and Orange halls within the borders of the Irish state, in addition our constituition also recognises the right of all Northern Irish citizens who so wish – to be part of the Irish nation, a sizeable number of which belong …

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In article in yesterday’s Financial Times Risk experts Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Mark Spitznagel argue that our economic system is laden with too much debt (triple the debt to GDP levels of the 1980’s) and that the government stimulus packages which rely heavily on additional borrowing risk repeating the errors of the recent past. They argue that the large deficits increase the likelihood of hyper-inflation. Instead they argue the solution is to transform debt (where risks are hidden) into equity …

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The Sunday Business Post reports that Meanwhile, the British government has told its main financial institutions to adopt a sympathetic approach to Irish property developers and not to pursue them aggressively through the courts, under an informal accord reached between the Irish and British governments. In return, the Department of Finance has briefed Irish institutions covered by the bank guarantee scheme not to pursue British developers on their overseas loan books. A number of Irish banks have significant interests in …

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RTE report that the CSO have issued figures showing that public sector hourly earnings were 47.6% higher than in the private sector in 2007. Do you think this gap is sustainable? RTE report. MackNo bio, some books worth reading – The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves – Matt Ridley . Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance -Nouriel Roubini, Stephen Mihm