The IMF has released its latest post-program monitoring report for Ireland. What is notable in the report is how it highlights the still very-high-risk profile of the Irish banking sector, and the policy quandary regarding encouraging housing construction without endangering another Irish banking sector crash over the medium term. Despite a strong, three-year-long domestic economic expansion, Irish mortgage loans remain an unusually risky asset class.
In 1909 Tom Kettle was appointed the first Professor of the National Economics of Ireland at University College, Dublin.
He was in Belgium running arms for the National Volunteers when the war broke out in 1914. What he perceived as the barbaric Prussian assault on European civilization prompted him to apply for a commission with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, which he was awarded in 1916.
He was killed in action at Ginchy (Picardy) during the Battle of the Somme on 9th September 1916.
In the spring of 2006 the late Gerry Barry, the RTÉ broadcaster, organized a public meeting (in the former House of Lords chamber at College Green) to mark the 90th anniversary of Kettle’s death. He asked me to contribute a piece on Kettle’s work as an economist.
Ten years on, and a century after Kettle’s death, I thought readers might be interested in the brief essay I wrote for the occasion.
More details of his life are available in the excellent Wikipedia article on him:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Kettle.
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Available here.
A conference with the theme Macroprudential regulation: policy dynamics and limitations will be held on Friday January 29th, 2016, at the Institute of Banking, North Wall Quay, Dublin, organized by the Financial Mathematics and Computation Cluster, the Department of Economics, Finance & Accounting at Maynooth University and the UCD School of Business at University College Dublin. The conference schedule appears below.
There are no attendance fees for the conference, but attendees need to register. We are grateful to the Science Foundation of Ireland and the Irish Institute of Banking for their generous support of this conference. The Financial Mathematics Computation Cluster is a collaboration between University College Dublin, Maynooth University, Dublin City University and industry partners, with support from the Science Foundation of Ireland.
10:00 – 10:30 Registration and poster session
10:30 – 10:35 Welcome and introduction
Theme 1: Measuring Macroprudential Policy Needs and Policy Effectiveness
10:35 – 10:55 Marcelo Fernandes (Queen Mary University), “Response to supervisory stress tests”
10:55 – 11:15 John Fell (European Central Bank), “Credit flow restrictions: Implementation and coordination issues”
11:15 – 11:25 Coffee break
11:25– 11:45 Scott Frame (US Federal Reserve), “The failure of supervisory stress testing: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and OFHEO”
11:45 – 12:05 Eugenio Cerruti (International Monetary Fund), “The Use and effectiveness of macroprudential policies: New evidence”
12:05 – 12:25 Panel discussion
12:25 – 13:25 Buffet lunch and poster session
Theme 2: Housing Markets and Macroprudential Policy
13:25 – 13:45 Gabriel Brunneau (Bank of Canada), “Housing market dynamics and macroprudential policy”
13:45 – 14:05 Kieran McQuinn (Economic and Social Research Institute), “Macroprudential policy in a recovering market: Too much too soon”
14:05 – 14:15 Coffee break
14:15 – 14:35 Christoph Basten (Swiss Financial Supervisory Authority), “Countercyclical capital buffers in Switzerland”
14:35 – 14:55 Angus Foulis (Bank of England), “The role of credit in the US housing boom: Insights from tiered housing data”
14:55 – 15:15 Panel discussion
15:15 – 15:20 Closing remarks