Mack

There are many parallels between Ireland and Singapore, both small countries with populations of the order of 4.5 million, both open export focused economies, both competing for foreign direct investment. One area where Singapore is streets ahead of Ireland is in health care. With Ireland experiencing a fiscal crisis that threatens the economic sovereignty of the state, is it time to consider a different model for health care that could drastically reduce the cost of health care provision (€15.5bn this …

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RTE report that retail ghost town Dundalk is to become the UK and Ireland headquarters for a French online retailer, CDiscount. CDiscount’s arrival doesn’t involve the creation of a superstore that will wow the shoppers back from neighbouring retail boom-town Newry, however it will involve the creation of 50 high-end jobs. 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, …

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The Indo are claiming yesterdays decision by AIB to raise their mortgage rates on 3, 5 and 10 year fixed products marks the end of the era of low interest rates. In truth mortgage rates didn’t fall as far in this down cycle, which was driven by banking solvency issues, as they did at the low-end of the last cycle (the dot.com bust). Other banks are bound to follow suit very quickly and the Indo are advising home owners to …

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Tech blog Boing Boing have published a number of guidelines for Twitter users to help aid Iranian bloggers in the face of a crackdown by the Iranian security forces. Advice includes Do NOT publicise proxy IP’s over twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hashtag. Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran. If you are creating new proxies for the Iranian bloggers, DM them to @stopAhmadi or …

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The Northern Ireland Life and Time surveys are often quoted in debates on Northern Ireland, so it might be an instructive exercise to compare how the survey on political attitudes stacks up against the harsh reality of the results of a ballot – last weeks European elections in Northern Ireland.Reality Gap 1 NILT says 40% of people in Northern Ireland do not regard themselves as Unionist or Nationalist European Elections say 8.8% of voters vote for parties that are not …

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Fianna Fail (ed). The Soldiers of Disaster (nee Soldiers of Destiny) 1926-2009Savaged to death at local and European elections. Deeply regretted by builders, developers, bankers and cowboys everywhere. Remains reposing in large tent on Galway racecourse. Funeral mass tomorrow, at the Church of Bertie The Chancer. Burial afterwards in the Golden Circle Cemetary. No flowers please, brown envelopes only. [Recieved by text. Adds A google search reveals it’s been on some message boards for a week or two, more apt. …

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It’s not online, but today’s Irish Daily Mail leads with an allegation that Enda Kenny sounded out Gerry Adams about a Dáil pact after the last election via the Green Party. This following on from creating a stir at the weekend, when they reported the FG chief election strategist’s (Frank Flannery) statement that Fine Gael could work with Sinn Féin. A position from which Enda Kenny quickly distanced the party. It was probably a clumsy attempt to win transfers from …

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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

The Irish Times are reporting that many companies incorporated in Carribean tax havens such as Bermuda and the Caymen islands are considering moving their headquarters to Europe as the USA tightens it’s tax regulations. They report that Accenture, one of the first to move, is to incorporate in Ireland. William Green CEO of Accenture said “A member of the European Union, Ireland offers a sophisticated, well-developed corporate, legal and regulatory environment,” So far President Obama’s tax changes are working to …

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Michael O’Brien from the audience on RTE’s Questions and Answers last night :- 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

Hat Tip True Economics 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

The economic debate over the Irish banks has centred around what kind of bail out is best – a bad bank? a good bank? NAMA? or even temporary nationalisation? All of these solutions run against the grain of the process of capitalism. Irish banks took undue risks with other people’s money and are now bankrupt. Profits were privatised in the good times, but now the banking oligarchs demand that their losses be socialised. For the first time since this crises …

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There has been some discussion of comments made by Ned O’Keffe, FF TD for Cork East, over at politics.ie and True Economics. Details of what he actually said are below the fold. I find it difficult to disagree with Constantin Gurdgiev’s assesment This is either delusional or clinically mad. And it comes from a sitting TD. In fact, the statement is so historically, economically and socially illiterate, Mr O’Keeffe deserves no comment on this blog other than one word: FRIGHTENING!A …

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The Indo reports that 340,000 Irish public sector workers will be celebrating receiving their annual increment salary increases this year. At the same time, Irish private sector workers stare into an abyss of pay cuts, redundancies and government tax hikes – in part to fund these increases. But, somehow, it’s not a pay rise! By the way, for any public sector workers reading, these types of increases are unusual in the private sector. In the private sector you normally either …

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Yesterdays Sindo reports RTE’s ex-economics editor is polling 49% of first preferences with 21% undecided, a whopping 37 point led over nearest rival Labour’s Senator Alex White. The constituency also features Elizabeth Davidson whose husband ran for the UUP in the 1998 Northern Ireland forum elections. While she is unlikely to win, she has opened up a 5 point lead (on 6%) over Sinn Fein’s Shaun Tracey (on 1%). Fianna Fáil are facing wipe out in both by-election constituencies, with …

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Not content with having marched the state into virtual bankruptcy, Ireland’s leading property developers are banding together to dictate to NAMA the terms under which the taxpayer shall be allowed to rescue the banks and the economy from the mess they made. The Sunday Tribune reports on the creation of a new group, the Irish Property Developers Federation (IPDF for short, although Bankrupts Anonymous may yet be more therapeutic for the individuals concerned). There is no doubt that the taxpayer …

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Business Leadership report that a team of Irish engineers, academics, architects, geologists, hydro-geologists, environmental engineers, construction experts, consultants, and legal and finance professionals working on ideas proposed by Professor Igor Shvets of Trinity College have put together a plan for Irish energy independence. Ireland currently imports energy for 90% of her needs. The group hope to make Ireland energy independent within 5 years, after which they intend to export Irish energy to the rest of Europe. They plan to do …

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Hat tip Greg Mankiw – Bush’s neo-Keynesian. Also via Greg Mankiw, Alan Meltzer argues the US faces inflation in the New York Times, while Paul Krugman says it’s deflation they need to worry about. 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

Albert Einstein once said that insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, Michael Taft at Notes On The Front points out that government efforts to bridge the fiscal deficit by raising taxes and cutting spending are sucking money out of the economy, causing the economy to shrink and the deficit to grow! As previously discussed on Slugger, he is not alone as an economist in taking this view. Having tried this approach three …

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Eddie Hobbs interprets the latest ESRI forecast in his latest blog entry, he says 1. Unemployment is being privatised – 1 in 5 workers in the private sector will be unemployed next year 2. The government is finished 3. By next year the state may be unable to pay public sector salariesBased on the ESRI forecast it is now the case that we may not be able to afford public sector pay cheques at all next year. The math is …

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