Comments on: George Lee

By: KENNY HARPER

KENNY HARPER — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:48:01 +0000

Congrats to George Lee,hope he does well,fair play to him!man of integrity.

By: Reginald H O reake

Reginald H O reake — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:42:20 +0000

Compared to Brian Cowen ,Angus O snodaigh, and the majority in the Dail George Lee is an intellectual genius.In 1977 fianna fail overspending and recklessness in pandering to populist tendences led to the near bankruptcy of the Country and lo and behold they have done it again!Gombeenism is Fianna Fail,cronyism is Fianna Fail,The galway tent is fianna fail,Anglo is or Was (SINCE ITS KAPUT)Fianna fails developer bank,Incompetance is not exclusive to fianna fail but lets face it, They are the champs

By: Pat Donnelly

Pat Donnelly — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:00:57 +0000

@ Donal O’Brolchain

Hear, hear!
Frau Merkel follows an Iron tradition, won on the bodies, lost savings and very existence of the German middle classes, into which vacuum was sucked all resistance to National Socialism. All we need is honesty and a willingness to represent us. The rich seem well represented at the moment. Give the middle classes a go! France in 1789 was another country without a middle class……

By: Donal O'Brolchain

Donal O'Brolchain — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:43:46 +0000

Why do some in the economics profession seem to be putting faith in George Lee’s ability as an economist elected to the Dáil?

Within his party, we have had Garret FitzGerald, Alan Dukes and Richard Bruton. Within the Labour Party we have Joan Burton, an accountant.
These people have not prevented what I regard as a a similar policy mistakes being made in recent years as during the 1970s and 1980s - maybe even during the 1950s and 1960s too.

As Brendan suggested in the IIndependent on Thursday last, our way of governing ourselves is not conducive to avoiding economic boom& bust.
“All countries, however well-governed, have occasional failures. But some — indeed many — are more or less permanent failures. Economic stability and good governance are the exception rather than the rule. In Ireland’s case, the economy has been wrecked twice in just 30 years. That is more than coincidence. It is Oscar Wilde’s carelessness, and it will probably happen again unless the country’s politics can be conducted on a very different basis. ”
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/brendan-keenan/government-is-entitled-to-take-the-view-that-the-public-is-wrong-1769463.html

Why lay it all on George to get it sorted out in his first week in the Dail?

By: Michael Hennigan - Finfacts

Michael Hennigan - Finfacts — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:32:53 +0000

Veronica, over 400,000 on State welfare from a labour force of over 2m, is startling news enough without rabbiting on about the household survey.

Any change from the pool of clientism, nepotism, gombeenism and poltroonism, should be welcome!

By: Pat Donnelly

Pat Donnelly — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:33:07 +0000

It may be sufficient if he is honest and has no truck with developers.
Economics professionals did not stop the GFC. They helped to feed it. There is far too much of the ‘unexpected results” about economics and cosmology. Both are ferocious academic hothouses with Nobel winners galore, yet we do not seem to benefit from their expertise. Emperor has few clothes?

By: Veronica

Veronica — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:28:56 +0000

@James Conran,

Yes, it didn’t take long for him to leave his economist credentials at the door.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:31:40 +0000

@ James C
Given his audience, I doubt he’ll be quite as accurate as we might like from now on. He’s likely just aiming to be concise and compelling, which he accomplished imo.

By: James Conran

James Conran — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:31:54 +0000

He incorrectly conflated the live register with unemployment. So does everyone else of course.

By: Stephen Kinsella

Stephen Kinsella — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:35:03 +0000

Extremely interesting, reading the discussion of Profs Fitzgerald and Neary appended to George’s Barrington piece. Neither of them seemed too impressed with his contribution, at least in 1989. Was there any further work done on the subject since?

By: Ronnie O'Toole

Ronnie O'Toole — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:16:51 +0000

Liam,

George Lee’s Barrington Lecture in 1989 was on hysteresis, so it might be a long standing interest. http://www.tara.tcd.ie/handle/2262/2839.