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.
Category: Economic Performance
This CREI report by Bruno Cassiman is an accessible overview of this link between scientific research and innovation.
That’s how Buttonwood describes the relationship between the banks and government in Britain and America in his/her latest column in The Economist.
The piece goes on to predict:
. . . this leads to an odd symbiotic relationship in which governments have stepped in to rescue the banks, only for the banks in turn to finance the government. In the long run the danger is that this cosy relationship means lending is diverted away from productive private-sector projects and into government spending. Economic growth will be slower as a result.
It seems very relevant to the debate on the Irish banking crisis.
Colm McCarthy’s Kenmare paper is now available as Irish Economy Note No.8.
The paper presented by John Fitzgerald at the Kenmare conference is available here.