Based on our native skills with mobile networks on the one extreme, and with the ‘down to the metal’ silicon fabrication on the other.

BOH.

I attended a lecture last night, and one jem in the lecture I thought was Ireland’s ability in facilitation of development and entreprise.

One thing I remember reading about Silicon Valley a long time ago, I think it was a comment by a tech entrepreneur, he said it is so easy to do business in the valley. Because when you have an idea, all of the relevant sub-contractors to put the idea together are available, competitively and conveniently in the one spot. Hence, Silicon Valley can compete, even though its cost base might not be the lowest in the world.

I think this is the way to go in Ireland, rather than trying to lead the world. Even if we pick one or two key focus areas, as was suggested at the Farmleigh conference, I don’t think it will be enough to succeed in something like energy. But Ireland could a wonderful location to facilitate developers from outside to come and do their thing.

The Keystone Advantage:
What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems
Mean for Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability
by Marco Iansiti and Roy Levien; Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

The book by Iansiti and Levien examines things such as the Adobe Acrobat format, to give one example, which created ‘value’ for itself by being in the middle, being the format that everyone settled upon.

The book really explores this approach to innovation.

When you begin to talk about Ireland and it’s role to play, I am much less interested in Ireland as a Leader per se, but more interested in its opportunities as being a facilitator for companies and investors all over the world - a kind of keystone strategy if you will.

BOH.

If I wanted to get a group of people to put together artificial intellegence systems to police financial security I would go to Hungary.

I was interviewing a woman in that field out there a while back. I asked her why there were so many good AI people in Hungary. Her reply: “Because we (IT/AI people) have nothing else to do in Hungary other than to sit around coding all day.” She then went on to lambast the government and their lack of funding for the creme de la creme in universities and for being an all round bunch of wasters and then lifted the tablecloth on the table we were sitting at, stuck her head under the table and said: “And I don’t care if you hear that.”

Clearly, not much has changed in Hungary since the old guard left.

I understand now, that given the sheer scale and complexity of financial trading system(s) these days, that financial regulators in the US are beginning to develop artificial intelligence systems to help them police the territory. A bit like that funny machine, The Greco, that secures the casino from fraud in the movie Ocean’s 13. The Greco immediately shuts down the casino when it perceives there to be an illegal threat.

But seriously, couldn’t Ireland turn its apparent disadvantage of being in a financial mess, into an advantage? Is there not some opportunity now for Ireland to use its experience in financial collapse, to gain a lead in the new industry of financial security. This is something I would be very much excited about, and I think it would be cool if we could get the equivalent of a real Dr. Gregory House on board the project also.

Now, as for the idea of including a real life Frank Abagnale Jr. is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, in the movie Catch Me If You Can, perhaps there is scope there too, to enable some of Ireland’s biggest fraudsters to help out with the national cause.

BOH.

Thanks for reading the posts Karl.

I keep applying this analogy of the medical diagnostitian to subjects such as banking regulation - all these kinds of subjects, which I am totally unfamiliar with - and at least, looking at them through lense of the ‘House M.D.’ TV show, it all seems to make a little more sense.

The real reason I rattled on so much about it, is because, while I am so familiar with this designer type of problem solving routine, doing it every darn day of the week - I know that many other very qualified and intelligent people might go through their entire careers, without ever looking at the world from a designer’s point of view.

The same way, as I rarely use balance sheets or Central Statistics Office figures in my daily chores. Yet, listening to economists talking, reference to CSO figures, seems like the most natural thing in the world to do. If I mentioned that to some of my architectural design colleagues, they would fall around the place laughing.

I would be very interested as to what economists here would think of House M.D. TV show, since it describes what I do, pretty much to a ‘T’.

BOH.

@brian o’hanlon: i’ve read your posts and all i want to know is - is that show ‘house’ pretty good then?

Sticks in the throat now.

Yes - you have a point on those ‘mobile upper level gangs of pirates’ in the ‘commercial banking sector’ - but these operated on the principle of ‘by the time these fools figure this out we’ll be gone’ and Ireland is not unique here. They are back in action in Wall Street etc. Of course ‘legally’ these modern day pirates can claim that ‘we did nothing wrong’ - and they have been given a minimum of 36 months by the servants of the Irish State to stash the loot in various far-flung hide-outs ……and others not so far-flung ….. these ‘criminal gangs’ were actively recruited by senior management with the imprimature of their boards in an attempt to keep up with the Jonzez gang led by Long John Seanie and his sidekick Fingers Looty in the Sky with Diamonds ……..

As to your reference to the Roman practice of ‘DECIMATION’ there is now more than sufficient anecdotal evidence that Decimation is now Item-1 on certain political party and upper-echelon agendas as the citizen Goths, Visi-Goths, Huns, Whiteboys, Ribbonmen, Roundheads, and other sundry low-lifes begin to wake up ………. or maybe not!

exactly. We all love to write high-and-mighty letters into the Irish Times vilifying the PD’s for the “neo-liberal capitalist policies”, but i really don’t remember anyone complaining all that much about rising wages and rising house prices in the first half of the last decade (please, no one start an argument over whether the new decade has started or not yet!!), complete with construction-fuelled full-employment. The PD’s policies were so successful and became so mainstream that SF ended up putting tax cutting pledges into their election manifesto the last time out. We did indeed get the politicians and policies we wanted.

Of course, to reference a real political economist, for other peoples’ benefit. I suggest a reading of Amartya Sen’s Development As Freedom.

A book in which Sen argues which should come first - economics or social and political?

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion myself, the more I look at this whole thing here in Ireland, we got the politicians we deserve. They told us what we wanted to hear. They provided us with policy we wanted in some strange and real way. Without changing that, changing the politicians or political party will not make much difference.

Rather than a political system which warp-ed the economy, I would say we have an economy which is able to warp the political system.

This theory has a distinct advantage, that is doesn’t support a burning need in the Irish mentality to put a head on a plate. However, my theory, does have a distinct advantage, in that it explains a lot more of the plain and honest facts.

BOH.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0121/1224262769895.html

Note how he doesn’t make simplistic demands calling for justice or heads on plates, or claiming that somehow some proceedings being kept out of the public eye will make the inquiry irrelevant or a cover-up etc. Its a serious, rational and pragmatic response to some of the childish sh1te that had been spouted here, there and everywhere over the last few days. At the end of the day, whats truly important in this inquiry is what questions get asked and what answers get given. As he says:

“But the methodology probably is not all that important as long as the major questions are answered fully and honestly within a reasonable timeframe. ”

This should be the primary focus of all those who actually want to fix our broken financial system, instead of simply looking for people to blame for this sad sorry state of affairs.

Irish people do not believe in entreprise, or earning a fortune. The Irish people on main street only believe one simple fact. That as long as their home is rising in value, all they are doing in their jobs is keeping a bank balance topped up, sufficient to pay a few bills. The home value index is the major entreprise.

To refer to a major academic economist, Robert Shiller, who talks about giving people in the United States a ‘measuring stick’ to understand inflation, rather than what they own at the moment, a measuring stick which constantly changes in length and is completely useless. What we need in Ireland, is to give people a measuring stick, for the first time, which shows other things, other than the value of their homes.

Over and out, BOH.

People on main street will continue to behave like they do, until they are presented with an alternative model, and way to look at their universe.

The bankers know this better than anyone. The bankers know which side their bread is butter on.

In Fianna Fail’s best interest, they don’t want to enlarge peoples’ perspective on main street of the Irish economy, because then they would lose their biggest lever, to win votes. Like I said, a lot of very intelligent people on main street seem to have arrived at very dumb conclusions. The require assistance in see-ing beyond their present situation, beyond to something different and new.

Be careful too Paul, unless the government takes this opportunity now to start a new slate - in a time when they still have control over their situation - unless they display that courage, we will be looking back at history, 10 years from now, and saying to ourselves - yeah, we could have done something to stop that Fascist or Communist party dictatorship sweeping in, and cleaning the board in terms of votes. By which stage of course, it will be out of everyone’s control.

That is all very well Paul, and I agree with everything you say. However, the best gift the Irish people could receive, in political, economic or any other terms, is the ability to think better about themselves and their situation.

This is really why I mentioned Edward De Bono. What we witness today, around the globe, and more specifically on the main street of the Irish Economy, as I know it, is a severe shortage in assisting ordinary folk to think their own way out of their predicaments.

As long as people are to remain trapped inside this vicious and circular, cause-and-effect logic I described, which probably goes back to Fianna Fail’s home building projects of the 1950s - a time when women stayed at home - while men ‘worked on the buildings’, or went to the pub. That is all there was.

It is a terrible shame to think that after the Celtic Tiger, the modern-isation and the sophistication of Ireland’s academics etc, that main street of the Irish Economy, as I describe, will not allow ordinary common folk to engage in any entreprise, which isn’t building-related are be-littled, by main street.

In short, the pest controllers, gym instructors and sweet shop owners on main street deserve a better deal, in which they can construct an entire new paradigm, in which to rational-ise their own situation. I think honestly and genuinely, we are back again, to where Lemass was coming from all those years ago.

Except this time, it is not the agricultural monopoly on thinking we have to deal with, but the builder monopoly instead. This is what a banking inquiry must look at, a new deal for main street. And fast.

Shhhhhh!

The academics, economists and associated specialists wish to commune in peace. I’m sure the institutional dysfunctionality and the effective suspension of any semblance of democratic governance (and their impacts on economic policy and performance) are well recognised, but provoke serious comment or engagement only when formal proposals are advanced to alter these arrangements - or when an academic paper touching on these issues is published.

In the meantime, the Government continues as an elected dictatorship and most posts (and comments) are directed at its proposed policies and policy decisions and at international experience and analysis that illuminate these policies and decisions. This frequently allows the principal contributors, if they wish, to draw on this engagement to present policy critiques in the wider media - which may or may not have an impact on public opinion and, ultimately, on the detail of Government policy.

This is as far as it goes - and probably should go. Anything more is political campaigning - either within or outside the existing political parties.

Will you please stop spamming threads, you are worse than E65, or maybe the same….

I don’t know that TV show. I must pick up a DVD box set some time. I don’t go in for TV shows in general, that is the weird thing. But honestly, I watched 5 no. DVD box sets of House M.D. almost entirely in one sitting. That is 5 no. seasons of 24 no. 1-hour episodes in each season. Around 150 hours worth of viewing in total.

I think something about Hugh Laurie’s character, reminds me so well of some of the best architects I have worked with. Something to do with problem solving. Everyone in the architecture world always deals with a lot of very intelligent and well meaning people, who are so emotionally invested in some project or another, which might vere off course in one way or another, the architects job is to try and detach from all of that, and assess the situation.

The ‘treatment’ is the easy part, provided you haven’t completely mis-diagnosed the problem in the first place.

The best architect I ever worked with reminds me a lot of something Edward De Bono once said. The crisis we face, in terms of the globe and the human race, is not climate change. It is a crisis in our ability to think. The point is though, had economists (from Ireland or any other part of the world) been exposed to situations like in any hospital, where sick patients come in, economists would have developed and grown certain instincts.

As I understand it, Edward De Bono was trained as a psychiatric doctor to begin with. Maybe that has something to do with how he views the world.

I also felt sure that economists should study more dynamics systems - be they natural, mechanical, virtual or whatever. I often used air-conditioning systems in tall buildings as an example I am familiar with. Those 2 no. things, patient diagnosis and dynamic systems. Two areas where economists in general, simply don’t get enough practice.

Good analysis. I agree, its deeper than Fianna Fail, or what ever party happens to be in government. But Fianna Fail have been in power for 20 of the last 23 years! But you are right, by focusing just on a particular political party, we miss the point entirely, the point being the systematic failures. But there also the cultural failures, voters have to take responablity about the way in which they vote which is where the Stockholm Syndorme came out of.

I rest my case.

But it is not wrong that Elaine Byrne sees every problem as a political problem - that is the severe difficult in specialising in political science, or specialising in anything else. It happens all the time on Dr. House M.D. TV program. The cancer guy sees cancer everywhere. The neurological guys thinks everything is brain related. The immuneologist knee-jerks into seeing something different.

Anyhow, that is why I think we need a Brian O’ Hanlon , who can work with Elaine Byrne, Pat Honohan, Joe Stiglitz, or Father Christmas - benefit from their key insights - but put it all together into an effective diagnosis. Preferably before the patient dies in the ward.

@ALL
Did you vote in 1997, 2002 and 2007 for sky rocketing house prices and a huge lending bubble? Me neither. I voted for what they they told me were the prudent managers of a securely prosperous economy. So secure that it ran a surplus and put significant money aside from pensions. We are not all to blame - the government, the developers and the bankers are to blame. They’d never have won an election on a platform of, “vote for an unsustainable lending bubble that will damage hundreds of thousands of lives and ruin the country for years”.

The Dept of Finance knew about the 4 other candidates. And remember all the hoo-haa about O’Doherty’s salary?

Is FF taking the piss?

“Wouldn’t the state be much better off if the dividends were converted into equity rather than deferred”

But im not saying that they should be deferred, im saying they should be paid! Obviously this years coupon may have to be converted into equity, but im referring to the subsequent years?

I hope they could find the ‘magic marker’.

BOH.

Sam Walton, who founded Walmart began with a single store. Goldman Sachs started with one guy walking up and down the streets of downtown with piece of commercial paper stuffed into the band of his hat. Hewlett Packard started in a garden shed. Tom Watson who founded IBM started life driving his donkey and cart around the State of New York selling type writers. (Once he got drunk and lost the donkey and cart, so was determined never to drink again)

The biggest problem with the banking crisis as far as I am concerned, is it has taken Main Street Ireland’s focus of what is important. Unless you are doing something brash, and big, and loud related to property - you are effectively seen as a second class citizen. That seems like a very dumb conclusion for some very smart people on main street Ireland to make. But this is how the rest of the world sees us now, for what we are. They don’t like us for it either. The gave Ireland the benefit of the doubt 10 years ago, because we were underdogs and deserved a shot.

We have blown that.

A certain scene from the movie Pulp Fiction springs to my mind here. I mean, the Irish public are not fools.”

The dramatic “Night of the Bank Guarantee” looks more and more like a work of pulp fiction concocted by FF.

But yeah the rest of the stuff isn’t all that serious.

That should have been Daragh O’Brien.
http://www.darraghobrien.ie/index.php?page=profile

Even though he was only elected in 2007 he is already:
“Vice Chairman on the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts
Convenor on Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs
Member of Select Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights”

Is there any point to these Dail committees? Our construction industry have been building houses with no occupiers since mid 2005, banks started tottering in early 2007 (we know), they all totally collapsed in Sept 2008 and the Dail committees will be looking into what has happened in….
2011, maybe. What is the point of them? They are literally useless.