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Last Updated: Feb 8, 2010 - 3:21:26 AM |
Analysis/Comment
Cowen makes another “rallying cry”; Court appointed examiner seeks €425-an-hour; 18 State agencies fund 4,000 non-staff flights in 2 years
Taoiseach Brian Cowen is reported to have made another “rallying cry” at a Dublin Chamber of Commerce dinner last night, while earlier in the day a court appointed examiner was seeking payment of €425-an-hour in the High Court and the Central Bank spouse travel saga rumbled on but it was only one State agency in this perk as 4,000 flights had been paid for non-staff by 18 agencies in 2 years.
Feb 5, 2010 - 9:05:49 AM
Analysis/Comment
Dr. Peter Morici: Friday’s US jobs report
Dr. Peter Morici: Today Friday, the US Labor Department will release January employment figures. Since December 2007, the economy has been shedding jobs and a sharp uptick in employment would indicate the recession is ending.
Feb 5, 2010 - 4:46:24 AM
Analysis/Comment
Dr. Peter Morici: Mr. President; It’s the trade deficit stupid!
Dr. Peter Morici: Since the Democrat’s debacle in Massachusetts, President Obama has been campaigning. In the State of the Union address, his new budget and other staged events for the faithful gather for hope, the President has the audacity to double down on class warfare and crowd frenzying envy, and tout as success an economic recovery about as thin as the Chicago Cubs World Series record book.
Feb 4, 2010 - 2:26:23 AM
Analysis/Comment
Ireland's Choice: Reform or risking status as a failed rich State
Ireland is one of a small number of the 24 rich countries of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that has suffered the worst of the global recession but it is striking that beyond short-term measures to correct the public finance imbalances, there is no evidence of serious interest in fundamental reform among the political class nor is there public pressure for change. Given the largely avoidable economic calamity, and the overwhelming dependence on foreign firms to deliver long-term prosperity, with the exception of the new reforming leadership at the Central Bank, it's mainly business as usual elsewhere. It's a valid question to ask, if an unreformed Ireland is destined to be another failed rich State like Japan?
Jan 29, 2010 - 5:11:02 AM
Analysis/Comment
Ireland: Where the buck stops nowhere - - Irish banking inquiry, DCC and a cast of Pontius Pilates
We have often made the point that Ireland is a place of limited or no accountability where the buck appears to stop nowhere. On Tuesday, we had announcements on reports to be made as part of an Irish banking inquiry and a High Court Inspector's report on the DCC insider trading case was also published. There is a connection between the two. As for the banking inquiry, there will no doubt be a big cast of Pontius Pilates.
Jan 20, 2010 - 7:24:09 AM
Analysis/Comment
Irish Economy: Economists announce new dawn; "Kickstarting" growth from behind a desk! ECB director terms them delusionists
Irish Economy: Good news at last as economists announce a new dawn after a winter of gloom. Lower costs are already "kickstarting growth" and from behind a desk, increasing shares in export markets have already been discerned from recent cost reductions. However, a European Central Bank (ECB) executive director on Monday, said such people are delusionists.
Jan 19, 2010 - 8:30:22 AM
Analysis/Comment
Irish Property Crash: "Thank God, I'm not still a chartered accountant"
Irish Property Crash: When the base rate in the UK hit 15% in 1990, the commercial property market crashed in London and a high profile developer victim later told the Financial Times that in the few short boom years that were fuelled by tax cuts and good feeling from privatisations, he used to wake up every morning inking: "Thank God, I'm not still a chartered accountant."
Jan 18, 2010 - 9:10:49 AM
Analysis/Comment
Dr. Peter Morici: President Obama's Bank Tax: Just another bit of demagoguery
The president says his proposed tax on the capital of the largest banks and financial institutions is intended to recoup the TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program - - federal bailout scheme for the financial industry) money that has not or will not be repaid.
Jan 18, 2010 - 3:39:40 AM
Analysis/Comment
The euro, Ireland and the quest for instant competitiveness
The debate on the role of the euro in the crash of the Celtic Tiger and proposals for Ireland to reintroduce the punt as an option to produce instant competitiveness, is seldom bolstered with the challenging task of examining scenarios that would follow the exit.
Jan 12, 2010 - 9:03:46 AM
Analysis/Comment
Dr. Peter Morici: Wall Street rakes big bonuses, Obama fails to stem abuse
Dr. Peter Morici: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and other big Wall Street banks are awarding multi-million dollar bonuses to the same financiers who pushed the nation to the brink of financial ruin. President Obama voices outrage but fails to stem the abuse.
Jan 11, 2010 - 6:06:24 AM
Analysis/Comment
Wall Street's Accountability Deficit: "Money is like sea water. The more you drink, the thirstier you become"
Wall Street's Accountability Deficit: Last Friday, veteran American journalist, Bill Moyers, who served as press secretary to President Johnson, began his weekly program on the PBS network, with a proverb from the ancient Romans: "Money is like sea water. The more you drink, the thirstier you become." He said that adage finds particular meaning today on Wall Street, which began this New Year riding a tidal wave of bonuses in a surging ocean of greed.
Jan 10, 2010 - 7:52:58 AM
Analysis/Comment
Iceland: People before profits and people before banks!
The decision of the President of Iceland to refuse to sign a Bill providing for compensation for UK and Dutch depositors of the failed online unit of one of his country's banks, has won both plaudits and criticism overseas. However, despite the central role of banks in the misery inflicted on millions by the global recession, beware of populist bandwagon jumpers offering slogans such as "people before profits" and "people before banks."
Jan 7, 2010 - 5:07:17 AM
Analysis/Comment
Dr. Peter Morici: Why free trade is failing America
Dr. Peter Morici: No economic policy could better serve Americans than genuine free trade but open trade policies are failing Americans.
Jan 5, 2010 - 2:30:13 AM
Analysis/Comment
Irish Economy 2010: A year of freedom from fear?
Irish Economy 2010: This year could be one of freedom from fear for many in Ireland after a half generation of the high or delusion of Ireland having invented the free lunch, followed by the bitter harvest of the crash. It could alternatively be another year of despair as the forces of conservatism resist change.
Jan 4, 2010 - 3:35:29 AM
Analysis/Comment
"Et tu brute": Betrayal of trust; Administering last rites to Catholic Church authority in 2009; Little other change in Ireland
"Et tu brute," some of the last words of Roman dictator Julius Caesar, as he recognises his protégé Marcus Junius Brutus among his assassins, according to a version of history penned by William Shakespeare, in the play Julius Caesar. Betrayal of trust and its victims has been a multi-theme story in 2009 and apart from the administering of the last rites to Catholic Church authority, not much else has changed fundamentally in Ireland.
Dec 21, 2009 - 6:39:28 AM
Analysis/Comment
Dr. Peter Morici: US recession ends for Summers but for who else?
Dr. Peter Morici: White House chief economic advisor Lawrence Summers has declared the recession over, but as with most things economic, the opinion you get depends on who you ask.
Dec 14, 2009 - 6:10:40 AM
Analysis/Comment
Dr. Peter Morici: US trade deficit, new home tax credit and easy Fed policies threaten double dip recession
Dr. Peter Morici: The trade deficit, new home buyer tax credits and Federal Reserve support for the mortgage market threaten a double dip recession.
Dec 9, 2009 - 3:20:07 AM
Analysis/Comment
Dr. Peter Morici: American stimulus spending and lost hope
Dr. Peter Morici: American workers face a jobless recovery and more stimulus spending won’t fix what’s broke.
Dec 8, 2009 - 5:44:06 AM
Analysis/Comment
Ireland 2009: People of the Year, Brass Neck and Golden Fleece Awards!
Ireland 2009: It's time for our People of the Year, Brass Neck and Golden Fleece Awards! In these grim times, it's always the unheralded people who would never merit media attention, who make the greatest contribution to others' lives and their communities. The greatest pain is surely the misery of unemployment and for others, with the benefit of good health, how important can a cut in consumption be? It may seem too early to echo the words of Shakespeare in Richard III: "Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer"; myths may continue to be a more palatable comfort food than reality but disunited and fighting over what are now the illusory spoils of a boom, will leave us in the words of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach "on a darkling plain/ Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight /Where ignorant armies clash by night."
Dec 7, 2009 - 3:54:57 AM
Analysis/Comment
Irish Budget 2010: Jellyfish politics rule as Cowen sinks in fudge; Awaits "transformational" public sector reform plan from trade unions
Irish Budget 2010: The fudge agreed by Taoiseach Brain Cowen on curtailing the costs of the public sector via an agreement on unpaid leave that will provide possible cost savings ranging from the Department of Finance's reported estimate of €300 million annually, to the trade unions' estimate of up to €1 billion, is a return to the jellyfish politics of the boom years. A leader who has not once outlined a vision of reform since taking office in 2008, now appears to be banking on the trade unions to produce proposals on reform, which after years of resistance, they are now bizarrely dubbing "transformational."
Dec 2, 2009 - 9:11:07 AM
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