On Prime Time Tuesday night, debating the Finance Bill, Fianna Fail’s Michael McGrath thought he was scoring a point on Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty by stating: ‘Your plan is to…

This was originally written for Progressive-Economy.ie Whatever about the disputes over facilitating the passage of the Finance Bill, what people want to know is what parties are going to do…

If a graph can chart a thousand words, how many does two graphs chart? The math is not that simple – especially when you’re comparing Ireland’s comparative standing in both…

I’m not disposed towards conspiracy theories – the world is, after all, a wide world. So, no, I do think the antics in Fianna Fail are a well-planned ruse to…

Brian Lenihan and Patrick Honohan inform us that the EU/IMF deal is not written in stone, that it can be ‘renegotiated’ (even, it seems, the interest rate). For progressives, the…

We are hurtling towards the economic relegation zone – and few are noticing. Over on Progressive-Economy, Anonymous left a comment on a post I did regarding exports: ‘If what you…

It’s bad enough the debate has not asked the fundamental question of why, after a series of austerity budgets, the deficit did not fall, borrowing costs shot through the roof…

There is much commentary about our strong export growth in 2010 and the knock-on effect on corporate tax revenue which came in about 24 percent higher than what the Government…

Welcome to the New Year, same as the old year – if commentary is anything to go by. And to get the year going Colm McCarthy has produced this gem:…

The following is a speech I delivered at a public meeting in Dublin hosted by the Communist Party. The fundamental division in the economic debate is between those who support…

I was never a fan of social partnership. It was based on a flawed economic premise – limiting wage increases in return for income tax cuts; it was hardly a…

With more interest being expressed (finally, finally) in growth rates, what are the forecasters saying. Well, Ernst & Young forecasts have just been published and their numbers are bad. They…

So the 2011 budget is reasonably progressive. Indeed, budgets over the last two years have been reasonably progressive (makes one wonder how reactionary a budget has to be before it…

Yes, the Government has taken a sledge-hammer to the living standards of low and average income earners. But sometimes it’s the little things that expose the venality of policy –…

The Government repeats the mantra – we didn’t touch pensions, we didn’t touch pensions. They’ve been saying that since the beginning of the crisis even though they have cut the…

The ‘creepy’ is in the detail which the Government didn’t reveal. Social welfare rates will fall by 4 percent (except for pensioners). Regarding low-average earners this is what the budget…

The budget will be nasty, brutal but, unfortunately, not short. Its effects will last – unless people through their popular organisations put enough pressure on the opposition parties to commit…

UNITE has published their ‘People’s Budget’ – an alternative to the deflationary orthodoxy that retains its grip on the debate and strategy. The principles behind the strategy are a €15…

‘Cause I don’t. Commissioner Rehn announces on Sunday that he ‘strongly’ supports the Government’s National Recovery Plan. He even said: Implementing the plan will offer a “sound basis for stable,…

It is understandable that a large section of the population welcomes the coming of the IMF and the EU. They can’t do any worse at running our economy and banks…