The government has announced the establishment of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council – the details are here.
Congratulations in particular to regular contributor John McHale on his appointment as Chair of the Council. Best wishes to all the Council members on their new task.
The recent BIS annual conference focused on fiscal policy: the impressive set of papers and discussions are available here.
The paper by Roberto Perotti on “The ‘Austerity Myth’: Gain without pain?” is especially interesting for an Irish audience – he revisits previous adjustment episodes (including Ireland in the late 1980s) and provides new evidence on why fiscal austerity is intrinsically contractionary in the short term. The written discussion by Carlo Cottarelli of the IMF is also worth reading.
Jacques Delpla is an influential economist in French and European policy circles.
He has posted his suggestions for Greece at the Greek Economists for Reform blog.
The WSJ returns to this comparison in this article.
The NYT has an article on the declining use of low-value notes in the US (and the global rise in $100 dollar notes): you can read it here.