Another instalment of miserable analysis to help maintain the festive spirit! This time, on cross-border shopping, patriotism and the real exchange rate.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/1212/1228864709873.html
Also, a paper by Olivier Blanchard on Portugal that got me thinking along these lines:
http://www.bportugal.pt/events/conferences/IIIDEP/4.pdf
It all suggests that, as far as public sector pay is concerned, the commentariat is focused on quite the wrong question. It’s not whether there should be a public sector pay freeze, it’s how big the pay cut should be.
One reply on “More festive cheer”
Public sector pay cuts strike me as being the least bad way of cutting expenditure (even though they would obviously lower demand). Is there any sense of when we find out whether this is going to happen, and if so, by how much are we going to be hit? If there is uncertainty about this, the sooner it is out of the way the better, in my view.