Colleague Eoin O’Leary has a fine article in the Irish Times today, which presents a sobering analysis of the repeated mistakes of Irish governments due to blocks in thinking. The thinking behind policy-making presented is certainly what Thomas Sowell would refer to as a “vision of the anointed”. One is reminded of the sub-title of [...]
Nobel Laureate Friedrich von Hayek was a strong advocate of the role of tacit knowledge in the economy. This is best explained by this short extract from his classic 1945 article The Use of Knowledge in Society: This is, perhaps, also the point where I should briefly mention the fact that the sort of knowledge [...]
An article in today’s Irish Examiner highlights the OECD’s commendation of Ireland’s development aid spending – €4 billion on overseas aid during the last six years. In praising us for this contribution the OECD seems to caution us that our work is not done. It appears we must continue to contribute development aid – it [...]
Whilst having the now normal morning coffee conversation about the recession with a colleague of mine, she commented on the recent news that the Dublin Airport Authority are to begin charging customers for the clear plastic bags used to store liquids when passing through security, and was none too happy. Perhaps her reaction is [...]
Setting interest rates involves a balancing act between “price stability” and “economic growth”. In an influential 1993 paper “Discretion Versus Policy Rules in Practice” Stanford professor John Taylor proposed the following rule for setting the central bank interest rate: Interest Rate = Inflation + 2.0 + 0.5 (Inflation − 2.0) + 0.5 (GDP gap) The [...]
There is a report in today’s Irish Times of last week’s debate in UCC on co-location.
There is a new page on the ESRI website providing links to academic research of relevance for understanding the ongoing recession in Ireland.