Economy – Page 74 – Slugger O'Toole

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (after they retire)?

Mack on August 5, 2010, 1:43 pm

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Nassim Taleb has a thought provoking blog on the subject of gamekeepers turned poachers at the Huffington Post. Specifically he deals with regulators who use their in-depth knowledge of government regulations to secure extremely well paid employment, helping firms sail as close to the regulatory wind as possible, upon leaving public service. At Davos last year, Taleb was approached by Alan Blinder, a former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, who attempted to sell him a financial product that …

“there was good news and bad news…”

Pete Baker on August 4, 2010, 2:33 pm

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The still-Northern Ireland Finance Minister, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson, won’t be making a formal statement to the Assembly until September, but he’s written to MLAs to inform them of the NI Executive’s decisions about this year’s additional cuts in departmental budgets. From the Belfast Telegraph report In a letter penned to MLAs he said: “The main issue facing the Executive in this round was how best to address the £127.8m reduction in funding arising as a consequence of the announcement made by …

Decent government will sort the Constitutional question…

Mick Fealty on August 2, 2010, 12:40 pm

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I’ve a piece in Saturday’s News Letter, as part of that paper’s focus on Unionism in 2021. At its core, I argue that Unionists, and Nationalists for that matter, in Northern Ireland have been living vicariously off the virtues of their own ideas of their mother state for years, but that: Increasingly, our politics will be about being good in government, and making strong coherent choices that enhance rather than blight the future. As 2021 dawns, our choices should be …

Photograph of the Day – McMaster Street

Moochin Photoman on July 30, 2010, 9:28 am

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Moochin PhotomanPhotographer and visual artist based in Belfast. I have facilitated community based workshops with groups as diverse as visually impaired individuals in Dungannn, Travellers across Northern Ireland, Young Offenders and many community groups across Belfast. My work has exhibited extensively here in Northern Ireland in group and individual shows and has been shown in North America and i had my first solo international exhibition in New Zealand. I have been the recipient of a number of grants from the …

Calman Will Deepen Scots Economic Misery

Peter Geoghegan on July 26, 2010, 5:02 pm

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In May, the new coalition in Westminster pledged to implement the long-delayed Calman Commission recommendations for the Scottish Government. The Calman report, originally published in June 2009, was sat on by New Labour, but now its recommendations for Holyrood seem certain to be introduced within the coming months. The most eye-catching feature of Calman’s proposals is in the area of fiscal policy. Since 1998, Holyrood’s budget has doubled and many in the Parliament, particularly within the SNP, have long complained about the …

Sponging Londoners

Dewi on July 24, 2010, 7:21 am

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A profile in yesterday’s Guardian of Peter Hendy, boss at Transport for London (TFL), confirms some astonishing facts:

Welsh Nationalist. Rugby Fan. Know a bit about History and Railways…

Why Ireland can’t borrow to stimulate

Mack on July 22, 2010, 3:31 pm

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Karl Whelan explains why a Keynesian stimulus package isn’t feasible for Ireland in a blog post at Irish Economy – By the way, it gives me no joy whatsoever to write this. I would love to be in a position to recommend fiscal stimulus. The vast majority of us dismal mainstream economists believe that fiscal policy should be counter-cyclical, so that deficits are run up during recessions and run down during expansions. We would love to be recommending stimulus programs. …

“We are fully aware of the urgency of this matter…”

Pete Baker on July 21, 2010, 4:31 pm

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The BBC reports on a meeting today chaired by Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, and attended by NI First and Deputy First Ministers Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, Finance Minister Sammy Wilson, Northern Ireland Minister Hugo Swire and Mark Hoban, financial secretary to the Treasury. The topic? The troubled Presbyterian Mutual Society. From the NI Secretary of State’s statement Speaking after the meeting, Mr Paterson said: “Both before and since the General Election, the Prime Minister and I have …

US Ratings Agencies : Um.. please don’t use our ratings

Mack on July 21, 2010, 12:08 pm

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So, just as Ireland get’s downgraded by Moody’s, the Financial Reform Bill in the USA throws a spanner in the works, potentially making the agencies liable for inaccurate ratings. Their response – ‘stop using them please’. From the Wall Street Journal (via Naked Capitalism) The nation’s three dominant credit-ratings providers have made an urgent new request of their clients: Please don’t use our credit ratings. The odd plea is emerging as the first consequence of the financial overhaul that is …

Stormont inertia blocking future FDI to the NI economy?

Mick Fealty on July 21, 2010, 9:48 am

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Francess McDonnell argues that it is the political inertia surrounding the institutions in Stormont that’s giving investors pause for thought at a time of huge global flux. In particular she hones in on the lack of productivity from that quarter in advance of what could otherwise be an useful opportunity to spotlight Northern Ireland’s potential in Washingon at the US-NI Economic Conference on October 19th: Perhaps, before the conference, a few self-help classes might be in order. Among the first …

After the storm

Mack on July 19, 2010, 3:00 pm

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The Croke Park deal should ensure that Irish public sector workers are spared any further pay cuts. Perhaps worth reflecting, after a painful couple of years, that according to the OECD, Irish state workers are still among the best rewarded in the world. The Sunday Business Post report on a survey by Forfas and the National Competitiveness Council. The figures for 2010 show that Irish nurses are paid the fourth-highest average salary ($67,000) in the OECD. The starting salary for …

Ireland’s credit rating downgraded

Pete Baker on July 19, 2010, 2:01 pm

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As the Irish Times notes Credit agency Moody’s has downgraded Ireland’s government bond ratings to Aa2, blaming banking liabilities, weak growth prospects and a substantial increase in the debt to GDP ratio. However, Moody’s lead analyst for Ireland Dietmar Hornung said it was a “gradual, significant deterioration, but not a sudden, dramatic shift”, and the agency believed Ireland has “turned the corner”. The general government debt-to-GDP ratio was at 64 per cent at the end of last year, up from 25 …

Dublin : What a difference 30 years makes!

Mack on July 17, 2010, 7:28 pm

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If you are depressed by the economy today, Damian Corless’ look back at life in the Irish capital 30 years ago should cheer you up no end. If the past is a different country, Dublin in the summer of 1980 was Gaza with added rock festivals. There was nothing romantic about the foul smell wafting through the city streets from the Liffey. Despite a £25m war chest to fix the problem, factories upstream continued to spew out gloopy effluents that …

Derry/Londonderry will be UK City of Culture 2013

Mick Fealty on July 15, 2010, 7:38 pm

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From the BBC report Londonderry has been chosen as the UK’s inaugural City of Culture. The announcement was broadcast live from Liverpool on the BBC’s The One Show on Thursday night. Derry, which was short-listed alongside Birmingham, Sheffield and Norwich, will take the mantle in 2013. Mick FealtyMick 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 …

Ten Signs of a Fear-Based Workplace…

Mick Fealty on July 15, 2010, 4:34 pm

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Not thinking of any any government department/non departmental governmental organisation in particular, but I thought this was an interesting spot from a colleague this morning on Yahoo’s finance pages: When senior leaders make virtually all decisions in secret, dole out information in unhelpful drips, and base hiring on sheeplike compliance rather than energy and talent, and the PA system all but blares “Be glad to have a job, stop whining, and get back to work,” your company’s fear problem is …

Global Crisis: Write-off or inflate debt away says Steve Keen

Mack on July 14, 2010, 11:24 pm

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Aussie economist Steve Keen, host of the excellent Debt Deflation blog, has long argued that our current – record high – debt-to-gdp ratios are the real cause of the crisis. As the debt is still there, the crisis is still here. He offers a realistic assessment of our options – Having got ourselves into a debt-induced economic crisis, the only permanent way out is to reduce the debt–either directly by abolishing large slabs of it, or indirectly by inflating it …

Recovery in action? As Intel post best ever quarterly results

Mack on July 14, 2010, 10:08 am

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Businesses are upgrading their IT infrastructure, Intel reported monster Q2 earnings yesterday – the best in it’s 42 year history. From Daily Finance Technology bellwether Intel (INTC) blew past Wall Street expectations Tuesday, reporting the best quarter in its 42-year history on strong corporate IT demand. The chip giant’s results give investors a cause for optimism heading into the third quarter. The powerful performance by the world’s largest microchip maker offers further evidence that consumers and companies continue to increase …

Books: ‘Who’s in Charge, Towards a Leadership of Service’

Paschal Donohoe on July 13, 2010, 11:13 am

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Father Harry Bohan and the Ceifin Centre were probably the most prescient in analysing the effect of economic exuberance on our society and the impact of the rapid loss of this success has had on our national spirit and psyche. This work has revolved around the Ceifin conferences that Fr Bohan has organised since 1998. The papers from each of these gatherings form an annual publication. These publications broadly charted the absence of values and of leadership based on non …

Job Creation : The Irish Innovation Fund

Mack on July 13, 2010, 11:03 am

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Yesterday Brian Cowen launched the Innovation Fund, a €500 million startup investment fund, which will be seeded by the state and US venture capitalists (50/50 split). While the academic response was somewhat muted – Karl Whelan on Irish Economy was underwhelmed by the size of the fund. Entreprenuer, and founder of Iona Technologies, Chris Horn was very impressed. Seeing this as important as the seismic shift in the 1950’s when Ireland opened up to FDI – I have been slightly …

Job Creation : The importance of startups

Mack on July 12, 2010, 12:11 pm

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Interesting report from the Kauffman Foundation on job creation by startups in the USA and it’s importance. The oft-quoted American sports slogan, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing!” could well be attributed to the economic importance of firm formation in creating jobs. A relatively new dataset from the U.S. government called Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) confirms that startups aren’t everything when it comes to job growth. They’re the only thing. Policy makers take note – Job growth is driven, …