Dan O’Brien from the Economist Intelligence Unit has been appointed economics editor of the Irish Times. He is someone whose opinion should be taken seriously, even if one doesn't agree…

  TASC's must read publication – Mapping the Golden Circle.  You may have heard about this circle.  You may have even referred to it.  Here you can find out exactly…

How fortunate we are to have a Government that knows what it is doing in these times of economic and fiscal crisis. And even more fortunate that we have commentators…

The only enjoyable aspect of Eurostat’s decision to reclassify the Anglo-Irish Bank subsidy as a liability on the General Government Balance/Debt is to watch the Government’s hands move even faster…

Apologies for being off-line for the last coupe of weeks.  Will be back on April 10th.  And there's so much to get back into to:  bank bail-outs, the publc sector…

In today's Irish Times  28 economists, academics and analysts have signed an op-ed attacking the Government's failed economic strategies while providing an alternative way forward. In short, they argue that…

There is probably no one who really believes that NAMA will succeed in its core mission – freeing up credit for the economy. I doubt that even the Minister’s scriptwriters…

Davy Stockbrokers has produced the must-read report (so far) of the year. Entitled, ‘Years of High Income Largely Wasted’, it is one of the most damning indictments of the squandered…

Water charges (or levies or taxes) will come up the agenda and no doubt there will be considerable confusion as to what they are intended for: incentivise ‘efficient use of…

A quick follow-up to the post earlier today on the jobs crisis.  In it I referred to one of the reasons why people 'sign-off'' the Live Register – administrative reasons. …

175 Boston Scientific jobs to go in Galway, the loss of 200 Bitech Engineering jobs in Louth,a seismic 750 job lost at Halifax, those depressing numbers that Ronan Lyons has…

Following the St. Stephen’s Day sales there was much commentary to the effect that huge shopping crowds were signs of a new confidence resulting from the Government’s budget. We were…

Life can sometimes be like an American country and western song: ‘My girl friend left me / my dawg bit me in the leg / my mamma joined the army…

In the last post, I suggested that some of the arguments regarding the relative poverty measurement were starting to be answered. Now let’s start some new arguments – but, as…

There are a few subjects that are guaranteed to start rows. Public sector pay is always a dead cert. Stimulus is another one. And, of course, relative poverty; as in…

The Government announced that the 2010 budget would be the worst and that in subsequent years the level of fiscal contractions – either in pubic expenditure cuts or tax increases…

It's time for a break (for me anyway).  Apologies for not being as active as I should have been on the issues surrounding the budget but work has been ferocious. …

They won. We lost. Get over it. Now let’s change it. There are any number of outrages in the 2010 budget – large ones and a plethora of small ones…

‘The sage does no-thing, but leaves no-thing undone.’ So wrote Lao Tsu in what is now a major religious text. There may be something in this when it comes to…

So, Professor John O’Hagan wants to cut economic growth, undermine business profits and throw more people out of work while saving only a fractional amount on the borrowing requirement; not…