What kind of recession are we having – or rather, how is it impacting on different sectors of the labour force? Some time ago we heard talk of a middle-class…

In a previous post on Progressive-Economy.ie, where I disputed the economic benefits of cutting wages, Professor Alan Mathews and Pavement Trauma questioned aspects of my analysis, raising important issues which…

In European terms, local taxation in Ireland is almost non-existent. The EU-15 average local tax take is 4.9 percent of GDP; in Ireland its 0.8 percent of GNP. Even Luxembourg,…

The Government now has its bookends. On the expenditure side, the McCarthy Report; on the taxation side, the Commission Report. Now we can stack the economy between the two and…

First, the good news. The rise in unemployment is contracting. From a monthly high of 36,500 new people on the Live Register, the rise last month was a mere 4,300.…

The Commission on Taxation is about to descend upon us – six hundred pages worth, apparently. The Commission report is of a different order than the McCarthy report. The latter…

Dr. Garret Fitzgerald is not impressed with the notion that if the majority of legislators believe that Government proposals are wrong or misguided, they should vote against them. No, according…

John McHale of NUI Galway has produced an outline for a fiscal plan. It is well worth reading. It’s a serious treatment. It’s also an unnerving treatment. For it has…

Stop the Presses! ‘Irish workers earn 4th highest wages in the world!’  ‘Irish workers one of the best paid in the world!’ ‘Wages for Dubliners are among the highest in the…

‘There are people who are working right now, who are looking at the possibility of losing their jobs, they cannot save, they cannot build up the savings to cushion potential…

This was originally written for Progressive-Economy If you took some commentators seriously, you’d be excused for believing that Ireland Ltd. is on the verge of going into liquidation. Whether it’s…

A big thanks to Tipster who provided this link to the Keynes Game - a game of political economy from Dreamscape.  It's very easy.  You have the variables to play around…

Maybe it’s the Leveller in me, but when times are hard we should all put our shoulder to the wheel, share out the pain and protect the lesser able in…

‘However, given the enormous scale of the problem, it would be fanciful to suppose that it can be solved without at least some reductions in public spending, and anyone who…

There is a tendency in political discourse to reach for the apocalyptic. Admittedly, when you read the latest Central Bank report, you can hear the sounds of seals being broken.…

Spare a thought for Mary and Sean. Both work full-time – not great paying jobs but together they pull in 60K with overtime. They need it. They bought a house…

On the One News at One, RTE’s business editor David Murphy concluded his piece on the National Treasury Management Agency’s Annual Report: ‘The other problem is that the credit rating…

Boy, have public sectors workers been kicked around the block for drill. They wear the mark of Cain. They are one of the main reasons why the economy is in…

Noel Whelan wants you to read The Report. He wants you to read it now. Call in sick, dump the kids on grandma, kick the cat out – and read…

No one should be too surprised about the broad thrust of the report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes (here on referred to as The…