Month: October 2009

DEW Conference – November 2nd

Post author By Colm Harmon
Post date October 23, 2009

The third in the series of Dublin Economics Workshop meetings on the Irish economy will take place on November 2nd at the Radission SAS Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 2. The programme details are as follows:

1300 Registration

Session 1

Chair and Discussant – John Fitzgerald (ESRI)

1330-1415 David Blanchflower (Dartmouth) – What Should Be Done About Rising Unemployment?

1415-1445 Colm Harmon (UCD) – Education and Innovation Strategies

1445-1515 Discussion and Q&A

1515-1530 Coffee Break

Session 2

Chair and Discussant – Colm McCarthy (UCD)

1530-1600 John McHale (NUIG) – The Other Crisis: Whither Irish Pensions?

1600-1630 Philip Lane (TCD) – Fiscal Policy and Macroeconomic Adjustment in Ireland

1630-1700 DIscussion and Q&A

Please RSVP to emma.barron@ucd.ie (many thanks to those who have already done so!). We are looking forward to a full house and a lively meeting.

Categories In Crisis Conference
4 Comments on DEW Conference – November 2nd

Update on Site Activity

Post author By Philip Lane
Post date October 22, 2009

As of today, this site has received 500,000 visits since it began in December 2008, an average of 3,095 per day. These visits have involved 1.39 million page views. In terms of geography, 68 percent are resident in Ireland and 32 percent view the site from the rest of the world.

ECB and Nationalised Banks, Again

Post author By Karl Whelan
Post date October 22, 2009

My former colleague, Mike Casey, wrote the following in this article in today’s Irish Times:

When Nama is up and running, the banks will be able to borrow far greater amounts from the ECB. Some of this money may be lent to the private sector (one hopes), but it is likely that substantial funds will be made available to the Government to finance the budget deficit.

This may be the main reason why the Irish banks were not nationalised. If they had been nationalised this transfer of funds could not occur, since the ECB cannot lend directly to government.

I’m afraid I have to disagree with this argument for why Irish banks cannot be nationalised.

Categories In Banking Crisis
Tags ECB, Nationalisation
22 Comments on ECB and Nationalised Banks, Again

Academic Cassandras: Iceland and Ireland

Post author By Frank Barry
Post date October 22, 2009

Timely warnings were issued by academic commentators in both Iceland and Ireland long before the collapse. On Iceland’s sidelining of its most internationally-prominent economist, see my recent book review for the Irish Times. The Sunday Independent afforded me the chance, a few weeks ago, to review the policy concerns that I had been expressing over the last decade (see here). I was not in any way a lone voice, but the space allotted allowed me examine only my own record. I was particularly disappointed to see Minister Eamon Ryan coming out with as ignorant a reaction to academic economists’ interventions as Denis O’Brien’s.