The Debt Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Controls

The 2011-2012 Henry Grattan Lecture Series will address the theme of The Debt Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Controls. Henry Grattan lectures aim to promote informed and non-partisan debate and to offer new ideas to decision-makers and opinion-formers on long-term social, political and economic challenges.

Speaker:              Prof Karel Williams, Manchester Business School

Talk Title:            Elites and Crisis: the Case of the Econocrats

Date:                     Thursday 19 January from 6.00 to 7.30pm

Venue:                 Thomas Davis Theatre, Arts Building, TCD

The financial crisis from 2008-11 demonstrates that econocrats (central bankers and regulators) cannot understand or control finance and markets. In this public lecture Karel Williams, Professor of Accounting and Political Economy at Manchester Business School, will argue that the debt debacle is also a crisis of our expert elites. The lecture will be chaired by Paul Sweeney, Economic Advisor at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Registration:
Lectures are open to the public and there is no charge to attend. However advanced registration is recommended. Reserve your place today.

For additional details visit the Policy Institute website.

NYT: The Fall of Ireland’s Mighty Quinn

The NYT reports on the Sean Quinn case here.

Publicpolicy.ie

Frank Convery writes on this new initiative in this Irish Times article.

1 euro investment returns 300-400 euro to the exchequer

Peter Cox advocates greater public investment in the heritage sector in this Irish Times article.  There may well be a strong case for extra investment in this sector. Still,  it would be good to see the rigorous analysis behind this remarkable rate of return.  It would also be good to see the cited Quantum Research study that finds that

grants made over the last 10 years have contributed at least two-fold and possibly four-fold to the exchequer in income tax, VAT, employment and buying local and Irish goods

Happy 2012?

Charles Wyplosz writes on what can be done in 2012 to fix the eurozone crisis in this vox article.