I was struck by a statistic quoted by Dominic Rushe in the Sunday Times some weeks ago. He quotes a Harvard Medical School report that illness and medical bills caused half of of the jyst under 1.5 million personal bankruptcies in the US in 2001. Given the rise in healthcare costs it is not unreasonable [...]
Jane Bourke & Aileen Murphy Last night, the Irish Times Pfizer Health Debate was introduced with Fintan O’Toole explaining how co-location is publicised as an ideal partnership between government and enterprise. Rather than providing the 3,000 new acute beds required by the health service, co-location is the building of private hospitals on the same site [...]
In recent weeks the Irish government has become very much preoccupied in reversing the decision by the major credit rating agencies Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch’s Ratings to downgrade Ireland’s credit rating from the prestigious AAA. According to official sources the triple A rating is bestowed upon securities considered the lowest risk to investors, [...]
Brian Turner, of this parish, will participate in a debate on hospital co-location in UCC tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at 6.30. This event is being part-organised by the Irish Times and further details are available here. Brian will be arguing against the motion that ’hospital co-location is neither financially viable nor ethically sound’. The debate, which takes [...]
An average growth rate of 9 per cent over the past three decades has made China the world’s third largest economy today. Hundreds of millions of Chinese people have escaped absolute poverty with great structural change taking place in the economic system. China’s rapid economic growth has largely been attributed to its substantial export growth. [...]
Follow the link below to the slides I used this morning (7.30am!) in a presentation to a Business Planning Breakfast Seminar. My short session on “The Macroeconomic Environment” gave a brief run through of the current economic climate and concluded with a short clip from the children’s favourite, Duck Tales (clip viewable after last slide). Business Planning [...]
A good article by Paul Krugman that disputes the Austrian theory of business cycle fluctuations, claiming that the practice of tough love only offers an easy way to moralise after years off excess, affording us a clear conscience. http://www.slate.com/id/9593
The monopoly of Sky Sports in broadcasting live games from the English Premier League was broken up as a result of a 2006 ruling from the European Commission. Following from this, the Irish company, Setanta Sports, entered the market in August of that year and they along with Sky paid a total of £1.7 billion [...]
N Gregory Mankiw has an interesting suggestion on how rates can be cut below zero. With a negative nominal rate the problem is that people will keep cash as a zero return (on cash) is better than a negative return. His suggestion (credited to a graduate student) is that the government announces that in one [...]
Last Tuesday’s Budget from Minister Brian Lenihan was definately not a Budget for people to savour. The problem is whether it will become a budget that will increase people’s urge to save for the rainy day. It seems in Ireland the proposed course out of the recession is for the government to increase taxes and [...]