GOVERNMENT HAD NO CHOICE OTHER THAN TO RE-OPEN 2020 is a year that we will all want to forget about as quickly as possible, and we hope that we can look forward to a better 2021. Naturally, how good 2021 will turn out to be from a societal and economic perspective will be totally influenced […]
BUDGET 2021 THE ECONOMIC BACKGROUND Budget 2021 is all about COVID-19, housing, health, Brexit, and climate change. It marks the third part of a fiscal trilogy that included the pandemic employment package announced in March, and the July stimulus package. In some respects, framing this budget was very challenging, given the dramatic impact of […]
A STRONG COUNTER-CYCLICAL BUDGET TOTALLY APPROPRIATE In Budget 2020, Paschal Donohue adopted a pretty conservative approach to the public finances despite the fact that it was the last budget before the general election. In the aftermath of that election in February, I heard a number of bruised and battered Fine Gael voters lament and even […]
ASSESSMENT OF US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2020 Election 2020 possibly the most important in generations… It is generally accepted that US Election 2020 is possibly the most crucial presidential election in generations, if not in US history. In 2016, Donald Trump upset the odds and came to power without any real political pedigree. During his […]
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COVID-19 POSES SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE TO GLOBAL ECONOMY AND FINANCIAL MARKETS There is an old maxim in the world of economics and financial markets that one should always expect the unexpected. Coming into 2020, there were grounds for a slightly higher level of optimism relating to the coming year, following on the back of what was […]
IRISH GROWTH HEALTHY IN 2019, BUT THAT IS NOW HISTORY Last Friday the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the first estimate for growth in the Irish economy last year. There were no surprises and the picture presented is of an economy that experienced decent levels of growth last year. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by […]
The Taoiseach’s address to the nation on Saint Patrick’s night set a pretty perfect tone for where we find ourselves at the moment. It was factual, measured and pulled no punches. The people of Ireland have been left in no doubt about the gravity of the situation, and we can certainly rest assured that the […]
COVID-19 IS AN EVENT WITHOUT MODERN PRECEDENT They say that a week is a long time in politics, but the past month has definitely been a very long time in the world of economics. All has utterly changed over the past number of weeks. When I presented at the IOD Evening Briefing series on 20th […]
THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE IRISH EXAMINER JULY 12th 2019 One of the dominant themes in global politics over the past couple of years has been a growing sense of nationalism and a move towards isolationist economic policies. Nowhere has this trend been more obvious than in the UK decision to walk away from its […]