Archive for October, 2008

What makes a good leader in a crisis? In difficult times, what are the personal and intellectual characteristics that elevate the mere mortal to the position of a giant? When facing disaster, what is it in human nature that inflates some people and gives them the ability to take the right decisions when everyone else is losing the head?

The current market instability could create lucrative chances for those willing to take a risk.

Because of the panic that has gripped the markets, the next few months will probably be the most profitable opportunity to make money in this generation. But you’d hardly think so by listening to the mainstream commentary in Ireland.

Today, Breakfast Roll Man is looking at his ghost estate. Not one sold. The three auctioneers don’t return his calls. Nothing is working.

By inserting a clause which ties the fortunes of our biggest banks to those far more susceptible to financial ruin, the government has erred – with potentially catastrophic results.

The budget strategy of our country is now more than ever dependent on what happens next to our banking system. As has been apparent to anyone who cared to look over the past 10 years, the buoyancy of our tax revenues was uniquely related to the deluge of cheap credit; money flowed in, banks lent recklessly, tax revenues rose, the government budget went effortlessly into surplus, spending increased opportunistically to catch up with this abundance of funds in the State’s coffers and, not surprisingly, the national debt went down.

Winner of the Nobel prize in Economics, Paul Krugman was interviewed by David in November 2001.
The interview is interesting not only because of Paul Krugman’s recent Nobel prize, but it also discusses recessions, a topic of current interest.

The solution to getting the world’s economies moving again is to turn cash, which is still out there, back into workable credit.

LEVIATHAN : POLITICAL CABARET
US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SPECIAL
8 PM ’til LATE
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH
THE BUTTON FACTORY,
TEMPLE BAR, DUBLIN
It’s a campaign that has captured the attention and imagination of people across the globe like never before.
It’s a campaign that has been the most intensely analysed, scrutinised and satirised in living memory.
It’s a campaign whose historical climax on November…

IN Brian de Palma’s classic film ‘The Untouchables’, Elliot Ness, played by Kevin Costner, gathers around him a team of incorruptible police officers, hardened by years of crime fighting, to take on the power of the mob. The real-life hero behind the move was an old, street-wise Irish-American cop, Jimmy Malone, played by Sean Connery. The term “Untouchables” describes this particular group of men who were straight, above the temptation of both bribery and flattery and, as a result, were the only type of men capable of infiltrating the mob.

David McWilliams was on Questions & Answers last night discussing the financial crisis among other topics.
Also on the panel were Joan Burton, Noel Whelan, Alan Dukes & Peter Power.
The program is available to view from the RTE website.
By topic: Was the Government right to bet on the banks?
How should Irish interests be protected?
Should economists be…