In last week’s Budget Brian Linehan formally introduced the 50c per medical prescription for medical card holders that had been flagged over the previous few weeks. It seems we are taking at least one leaf out of the Singapore book. Well a bit of a leaf anyway. Singapore combines government subsidies with patient co-payment for [...]
The BBC report the results of the 2009 Halifax Pocket Money Survey. Halifax have been carrying out the survey since 1987 and have found that over that time pocket money has increased by more than four times the rate of inflation. Halifax are most interested in the savings behaviour shown but there are some other [...]
New Geography has just released a survey of the world’s smartest cities and lists “the ‘smartest’ cities not only by looking at infrastructure and livability, but also economic fundamentals”. Singapore comes out on top with Amsterdam the only European entry, though the list is a little Americentric with seven cities (four US, one Mexico, one Brazil and [...]
Professor Ian Plimer of the University of Adelaide will be taking part in a debate on climate change organised by the Economics Society in UCC on Thursday 3rd December at 7.30pm in Boole 4. On the day before Prof. Plimer was on The Pat Kenny Show on RTE Radio 1 debating with John Gibbons of [...]
In an article in yesterday’s Irish Times, the ESRI’s Prof Richard Tol suggests that the clean-up operation may boost the economy. A short extract gives the main details. Prof Richard Tol of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has said that while the flooding has caused widespread damage, there may be an unexpected fillip [...]
The New York Times seems to think Ireland is a candidate to default just like Dubai. The Irish government may want Irish commentators to ‘wear the green jersey’ and do the economic analysis equivalnent of smiling and nodding – but then those pesky Americans go and mention the unmentionable.