Details below. The new position of chief economist is especially relevant in the context of the Fiscal Treaty, since key implementation issues (assessing level of potential output, evaluating feasible speed of fiscal adjustment) will require considerable technical input from the Department of Finance.
62 replies on “Vacancies at Department of Finance: Chief Economist / Head of Banking Policy”
What are the odds these positions will be filled by internal candidates?
What a strange question from the author of Indian Currency and Finance.
JMK
one internal & one external, the internal is not really internal either.
Congratulations to Fianna Fail and to the Professors of soft landings on the yes vote victory. The exact crew who wrecked the country are still running it.
@John
The people have spoken
They wish to be Bitch slapped to eternity.
The conservative rural cute Hoor and leafy middle who somehow think they have something to lose are responsible for this , not FF or FG Labour whatever.
They simply like listening to European Fairy Tales without grasping the dark message withen these tales.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKbWdgW6sD8
I have a reasonable intelligence, a good understanding of economics so I would like to apply for these jobs .Admittly I don ‘t have any practical experience ,but maybe I could apply under the jobsbridge scheme
FF on RTE claiming credit for getting Yes over the line….need i say more?
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0601/breaking1.html#
As the tallies flooded in, Socialist MEP Paul Murphy accepted defeat. “For this referendum, it looks like the game is over, but the battle on austerity continues. It goes back to the communities, to the work places,” the Dublin MEP said. “It’s looking like there’s been strong class polarisation where working class areas have been voting No and the more affluent areas have voted Yes in high numbers
It will be interesting to see how this trend develops
@ seafóid
Interesting, indeed! Maybe we will get a political spectrum that actually reflects the interests of the people voting for individual elements rather than the present system which obscures them.
The Irish electorate shows more sophistication in this type of contest than at general elections. The low turnout is indicative of a justified dismissive view as to the need for the referendum in the first place.
As to the view being taken in Europe, one could probably sum up the situation in terms of resigned acceptance that the Irish are querulous, litigious, grasping and – lucky. From zero to hero overnight, at least in the eyes of those trying to stop Europe falling into an even deeper hole.
Perversely, we may have voted for the destruction of the euro by supporting Angela Merkel.
This position could have a big impact or maybe not.
The goal to ‘build the Department’s profile as a global leader in economic policy development,’ is a little ambitious.
The key aspect of this role is not that we don’t know where we are and how to forecast, it is that the individual appointed has to have rare skills: a record in challenging bureaucratic resistance and experience in both developed and emerging companies, including interaction with business.
There is no point replicating traditional functions.
The sun is about to set in 10 minutes, off the road to a place called Ipoh and it seems it is also setting on the hopes of the Nos.
There will of course be few lessons learned.
There needed to be a more credible argument than the victimhood one.
With apologies for going off topic, but on a closely related issue, that of the appropriate division of powers between people, parliament and government, in international affairs, Mr. Justic Gerard Hogan has some interesting things to say in his recent High Court judgement which were simply not picked up by our totally inadequate main stream media.
http://www.thejournal.ie/high-court-ruling-pearse-doherty-referendum-commission-468476-May2012/
In an EU context, the principle is that of loyal cooperation without which the EU could not work. In short, as governments are for the most part also the federal executive, they cannot be frivolous in the decisions that they participate in and having signed up to do one thing suddenly reverse engines and do the opposite.
To be continued when the learned judge gives his full opinion.
Blue shirts only please.
Paul Krugman,George Soros,Paul Volcker, Amartya Sen,David McWilliams –what would those fools know.
Congratulations to all the Irish Professors of Economics on an excellent victory. Keep up the good work. Enda, our fearless leader, has noted your sterling work.
For the rest–the work goes on –the cause endures–the hope still lives and the dream will never die.
@DOCM
Can you explain this…
“If Greece withdraws from the euro and European leaders do not act decisively to prop up banks, Zoellick wrote in a column in the Financial Times, the resulting crisis could push the continent into a «danger zone.”
“Eurozone leaders need to be prepared – psychologically and through the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) – to recapitalize banks,» Zoellick wrote. «In the eurozone, the guarantees of some national sovereigns are unlikely to be sufficient and only that of the ‘euro-sovereign’ will suffice.”
Zoellick, whose five-year term at the head of the World Bank ends on June 30, added: «It is far from clear that eurozone leaders have steeled themselves for this step.”
On Thursday, the European Commission said there is no possibility for euro zone banks to be directly recapitalized using the ESM, although that statement appeared to contradict a document released on Wednesday from the commission.”
It seems like the left hand is keeping the right in the dark!
Previously the job was effectively Head Bankrupting Policy.
Head Banking Policy and the CEOs of all the banks should have a salary cap. Running a bank so that it doesn’t fall over is not complex.
The DoF should also have a Head Auditing Policy who could talk to the Head Banking Policy on a regular basis.
@michael H, anyone
Why is it that Ireland constantly has to go on about “profile” and include this “world class” “global leader” nonsense.
We all know this stuff is standard recruitment guff, but the Irish seem to go over the top with it – particularly given the current context. It looks as though they want someone to go in to bat for the Department.
Wouldn’t “competent” be more appropriate and believable, perhaps along with “cost effective”?
@philip l
Given that the referendum gabfest is done and dusted, how about a sweepstakes thread for number of hours until the first official claim that
a) Ireland will not require a second bailout.
b) Ireland will be back in the markets in 2012.
It is interesting to see the bad loosers comment here.
@John Corcoran – did Paul Krugman,George Soros,Paul Volcker, Amartya Sen, say that the Irish should vote no??
If you read back over what the ‘Irish Professors’ have said and written you won’t find a lot of enthusiasm for the pact but a) the view that it won’t make much difference and b) it is better to have the option of a second bailout than not.
@The Dork of Cork “They simply like listening to European Fairy Tales ” – I am afraid the fairy tales came from the No side as they fail to tell us where they would get the money to stimulate the economy from. It is usefult to remind ourselves that the markets won’t give us the cash at affordable rates and we have a deficit so we would need to borrow even without a stimulus.
Interesting – 18 responses to the thread to date- 7 on the topic and 11 off topic from grumpy people sore about democracy !!!
Getting back on the topic of these appointments in my opinion they should be total outsiders of the D of F and on fixed contracts so that they dont get stale as the whole lot in the D of F did before the crisis. The Recruitment level of Assistant Secretary with a salary scale up to €154K for a 41 hour week and 30 days holidays is ridiculous considering these people take no personal responsibilty when they make monumental “cockups”.
@ grumpy
So we can justify over paying them?????????
@trp
I think that is one off-topic from me. Don’t understand.
The economy must be picking up again, vacancies being filled by the bucketload for ‘essential’ people…
Anglo building sold for €7m
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0531/breaking33.html
Ah now I get it “grumpy people” 😉
Think a pseudonym alteration might be in order.
I’m not grumpy …here is what we voted for…..depressing…
From Larry Elliot
“Austerity has been a failure, for Greece and for the rest of the single currency. The idea was to end the recession quickly and prevent the contagion spreading to the other 16 members of the club. Neither has happened.
“There is precisely zero chance of austerity working,” said Yanis Varoufakis, once a speechwriter for the former socialist prime minister George Papandreou, now an economics professor in the US. “It is the same as thinking you can escape from gravity by waving your arms up and down.”
Varoufakis is scathing about how the crisis has been handled. “Europe’s made a mess of Greece for the past three years. Those responsible will go down as the biggest idiots in the history of economics.”
Even the captain of the titanic did better given his time constraints.
@ CP
“Europe’s made a mess of Greece for the past three years. Those responsible will go down as the biggest idiots in the history of economics.”
I think that needs to be repeated. Greece was unwell when it entered the hospital but the doctors assured that they would save it.
@ Tull
What are you going to do with all the crisps ?
@Scorpico
Yes I hold no candle for much of the No side.
The Greenback tradition has been wiped from the Historical memory of the west by the socialists – the bankers best friends.
Printing of a domestic currency that would reduce the leverage withen the system would be most optimal & rational for the domestic economy.
Fiscal defecits is a banking construct and a result of a lack of money withen the economy that can be solved very very easily.
Trade defecits is a different beast.
You can see this now as Greece has now difficulty buying oil withen the euro ” a strong currency”
We are F$£ked – Finance can now close down entire countries at will.
TOTAL POWER
It will be interesting to see how many – if any – of our eminent professors and/or celebrity economists step up to the mark and apply for this job. A cynic (not I!) would suggest that the prospect of real, unglamorous work, with shirtsleeves rolled up, might not prove especially appealing. Also: the congeries of serial ranters, ravers and off-topic polemicists that is irisheconomy.ie suggests that the pool of suitable candidates may not be especially deep…
At least our Bond Yields will collapse now….should get down to 5 or 6% based on what Lucinda was telling us….
“Europe’s made a mess of Greece for the past three years. Those responsible will go down as the biggest idiots in the history of economics.”
says
Yanis Varoufakis, once a speechwriter for the former socialist prime minister George Papandreou, now an economics professor in the US.
seems to me that theres some real competition for the title of biggest idiots in economics…. not so much for the title of best, most humble, deprecating or self aware economists in history
PS
Where do you think Finance gets the money to speculate ?
Banks create credit
But States can create money also.
The Euro is the most extreme example of this naked shorting of currencies which credit banks do every time they create a loan.
People think the Euro is a strong currency but in reality it is the most brittle undercapitalised monetary construct imaginable.
This vote might give those bastards another few years to strip the place.
Why would you want this ?
Seafoid,
Bad day for me. My prediction was wrong. The people have spoken, the B…..ds. It looks like the Shinners successfully persuaded 40% of the population that life would be better if the credit line was pullerd. What is that line about “fooling people”. It also looks like another flop for FACEBOOK-the last minute No bombardment flopped.
Yet again it proves the consensus on blogs is opposite to the consenus in the country. Where has Dave gone?
I nominate the Dork with Brian Lucey for Banking guru
@Garry
Re CB
I see they are going to spend 50m on it. Can anyone tell me why the CB needs a new building when they have a grand upside down one in Dame Street.
Off -topic again:
For those who haven’t noticed US non-farm payrolls abysmal.
US dollar looking very overbought above 1.25ish agaist Euro. Very very short Euro speculative positions abound.
Bear squeeze coming up?
Ireland’s ‘Yes’ claiming the credit?
[Disclaimer: every fx prediction is rubbish including mine]
The money / our money is flowing to the banks various bases of operations.
At present – In Lyon Alone (JCT old town)
1. Extension of Metro B under the Rhone river
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKDlSdrUfqs
2. Extension of Tramway T1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3pcuYf10ZU
3. Extension of tramway T2 (also known as T2+ or T5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLXKR4T-bKA
4. Two projects for T3 including a extension to the sports stadium.(in the future its likely to travel to market towns 40 Km from the city !!
5. Extension to line T4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDt6SZVaDaE
6. A Express Busway system.
So after previous massive investment most recently a Tram train system to the west of the city / suburbs / satellite towns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP2GA3oEzWo
– massive investment continues.
Read this and weep.
http://www.sytral.fr
When they are finished with us they will release the flow and capture it….. our nets will be full of entropy holes.
We are a sad bunch – always behind the curve.
@Tull
Brian wants to create more bank credit !!!! (as far as I know ?)
Printing however is what countries in Europe once did.
Printing is not naked shorting a currency – its a honest answer to our problems as it reduces the catostrophic banking leverage withen the system.
At the moment reducing our debt for us means the export of our wealth but withen the eurozone people must get into debt to buy our goods… on a Holistic level the debt is not reduced.
Here’s an interesting view of the ongoing crisis.
Euler Hermes insures credit risk. Find 5 differences between the 2008 and 2012 maps
http://www.eulerhermes.ch/de/dokumente/euler_hermes_map_2008.pdf/euler_hermes_map_2008.pdf
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.neusta.ms.eulerhermes&hl=en
@Grumpy
Disagree. Dollar looking cheap at 1.23 when you look at bond yields ..
10yr. Us…1.5, German 1.15.. And Swiss .45 even the French are winning with a yield 2.06%
Warning. Your bonds and currencies can go arseways and you could lose real money.
@ CP
“Your bonds and currencies can go arseways”
not under Solvency 2 they can’t.
@ceteris
Everyone thinks € goes to 1.15 or 1.1
Just making the point its a bit crowded in there.
John Corcoran and Paul Krugman would like to thank all those who voted No in the Fiscal Treaty Referendum. When this generation has passed away, and the tongues of praise now cease,it shall be written that John and Paul walked with the Irish people, in their vast diversity and helped with their great going forward.
@Seafoid
Its a lawless place at these leverage ratios – who really knows ?
Invented “capital” flows into a country , blows it up . leaves it , moves on , extracts a debt peonage.
Look no further then Turkey & Greece – Turkey is the Darling of capital now with enough credits to buy diesel to do whatever….while Greece is a bad boy….. does that make sense ?
I mean they might hate each other perhaps because they are alike in some ways.
Indeed Turkey is in many ways is a much nastier place.
In truth Turkey is merely in a credit inflationary phase , deflation in Turkey will follow just as night follows day.
Diesel use is nearly always a good indicator of economic activity / credit.
Turkey : omrpublic.iea.org/demand/tu_dl_ov.pdf
Greece : omrpublic.iea.org/demand/gr_dl_ov.pdf
We are dealing with systematic scouring of Shires by the globalists… anything that is beautiful is destroyed.
@Grumpy
Agree it’s crowded there but my gut tells me it could go even further than you envisage. We’ve never experienced bond yields like they are now.
@grumpy
Yes. It’s not as if the US is in the finest of economic health at the moment.
And the GOP are as rabid as they were last August.
@all
On the Piss_te with Blind Biddy!
Krugman made a good point to the Tories on Thursday. There is no major strong currency you can devalue against for your austerity to fly.
@ Garry
Clever indeed..
George Papandreou’s water carrier blames Europe for making a mess of Greece.
George’s speeches suggested that he counted a former prime minister, his father, among those who paved the road to perdition.
@ John Corcoran
John, you appear to favour benevolent despotism over the tyranny of the majority.
Years after its first publication in 1972, David Halberstam wrote that his favourite passage in his book, “The Best and the Brightest” (his celebrated indictment of the policymakers who escalated US involvement in Vietnam) was the one where V-P Lyndon Johnson, after his first Kennedy cabinet meeting, raved to his mentor, the speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, about all the president’s brilliant men. “You may be right, and they may be every bit as intelligent as you say,” Rayburn responded, “but I’d feel a whole lot better about them if just one of them had run for sheriff once.”
@MH
Er, I seem to remember that it was New Democracy that were in power when the numbers were fiddled.
George got a poisoned chalice.
Now ND are promising no new taxes and. No wage, pension or social security cuts despite the agreement with the Troika to find 11.7b.
Will the Greeks fall for the three card trick?
re-Ceterisparibus:’On Thursday, the European Commission said there is no possibility for euro zone banks to be directly recapitalized using the ESM, although that statement appeared to contradict a document released on Wednesday from the commission.”
It seems like the left hand is keeping the right in the dark!’
– The whole thing is being managed to one end at this stage. I used to think that it could not have been deliberately started, not so sure now.
Re- Grumpy:’Everyone thinks € goes to 1.15 or 1.1
Just making the point its a bit crowded in there.’
Investment manager from some crowd or other today saying $ = € later this year. Said it’s being led that way deliberately
@ Mark
I find it hard to believe that any organisation knows where the US$/EUR is going to be 6 months hence. If it was so obvious there wouldn’t be so many macro hedge funds in trouble. Very few of them made money last year. And you have all that dumb money like rabbits in the headlights. Sentiment is very fragile and capricious .
Figuring out which way the investment winds are blowing is difficult in the current circumstances
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyJdiE0l23c&ob=av2e
Here is an example- this link shows the CBOE put/call ratio from 2006 and it’s all over the place
http://im.media.ft.com/content/images/c86bbdf0-a68e-11e1-968b-00144feabdc0.img?width=634&height=644&title=&desc=
@MH
I read ” The best and the brightest ” in my time, which outlined the limitations of very bright/academic executives in Johnson’s cabinet, whose arrogance created the Vietnam nightmare.
I also read an FT article on Larry Summers about a year ago when he was chief economic adviser to Obama. At Obama’s cabinets he was the dominant thinker and actor–no other cabinet member could beat him in a debate. This made him the most powerful man in the US. He himself was very conscious of his awesome persuasive power,and the book he was then reading was the very same ” the best and the brightest”. He was aware of his own power and influence but I assume he was conscious how you can get thing badly wrong.
@seafoid
“Here is an example- this link shows the CBOE put/call ratio from 2006 and it’s all over the place
http://im.media.ft.com/content/images/c86bbdf0-a68e-11e1-968b-00144feabdc0.img?width=634&height=644&title=&desc=
”
That one is partly (only partly) all over the place because it is the FT to whom technical indicators are a mystery and they have used the wrong one – ‘total’ data. Since the volume got more and more distorted by index and ETF options from about 2005 on, the ‘equity only’ data has been much more useful. The retail only buy to open is more useful still. These indicators assist you to identify extremes in ranges.
Your basic point stands irrespective though.
Talk about hiring generals to fight the last war.
Ireland does not have a currency, its fiscal policy is now set within very tight bands, independent Irish cowboy banks are history, and Ireland has no independent trade policy, Nonetheless, the job qualifications describe someone ready to direct the economic policy of a large independent country such as China, UK, US, Mexico, or Nigeria.
Ireland has voted itself a region of the Eurozone. It needs a good Regional and not a Macro, International, Money and Banking Economist for this position.
Get Real
@ Geronimo
You make some good points.
Using the tag ‘global leader’ or the popular asinine one in an Irish context, ‘world class’ in fact only highlights what he or she should be.
This individual has to be prepared to be hated across the public service and force those who get away with spin and a lexicon of vacuous superlatives into the sunlight.
Up to €20bn spent on ‘science’ in the past decades and Minister Bruton brags about attracting 4 foreign firms to establish 100 jobs over 2-3 years.
@ Ceterisparibus
None of the two post 1974 heretofore dominant Greek parties have clean hands.
Dodgy national data (where does that put Ireland with data distorted by MNC tax dodges?) and a situation where there were more teachers than classrooms and more staff on the payroll at the Parliament building than desks for them, can be blamed on both parties.
In 1980 Greece had a debt GDP ratio of 22% and Andreas Papandreou, Harvard educated and a former American professor of economics, became PM in 1981.
It was payback time for PASOK and in 1982 a ‘reform’ of the civil service known as the Koutsogiorgas law, named after Menios Koutsogiorgas, a close aide to Papandreou provided for the appointment of large number of party ‘advisers’.
Kathimerini, the Athens newspaper, says that through the 1980s and the following decades, the number of new positions in the Greek public sector numbered more than 150,000. And the irony of it is that Greece’s creditors are now demanding that this exact number be cut from the state’s payroll by 2015.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4Dcgi/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_18/04/2012_438236
Kathimerini may not be exactly neutral but the facts in the article are well documented elsewhere.
@Michael Hennigan
“Kathimerini may not be exactly neutral ”
You can say that again. They’re practically running a crusade against anything other than the status quo (PASOK and ND).
They are also regularly featuring a number of things that Germans say and if they are not careful, will be directly responsible for violence against non-Greeks:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_3060_02/06/2012_445097
Funny these posts were not filled before the referendum. Could these jobs have kept economists onside during the campaign?
The ordinary voter did not know that the fiscal compact was economic madness. Neither did the ordinary voter know that the ‘promissory note deal’ was one big fat lie.
Had the govt. not held out the carrot of these plum jobs, maybe some economist would have broken ranks and pointed out these facts.
Am I getting cynical in my old age.? What’s the bets that the plumbest jobs go to economists who were helpful in the campaign?
Tim o,halloran
I suspect that none of the “economists who were helpful” (Whelan, Coffey, Michael, Lucey, ) will even apply. Insiders to one degree or anothe are required and these profs arent. They are at best fellow travellers on that road and now will revert to saying exactly what they think.
Feicimid
I presume this thread is the relevant place to talk about the forty odd new posts for economists in the department of finance?
The Irish Times article refers to the need for more “expertise”. But I think the English language title ‘expert’ is insufficient for these jobs for the boys. The Russian terms, apparatchnik or the plural noun nomenklatura, would be more accurate.
Meanwhile in the same Irish Times, there is talk of cuts in respite care and home carer funding, both employing public monies (and public workers) providing services the public actual need.
You couldn’t make it up. Satire is dead!