2008 December | David McWilliams

December 31st, 2008
Nationalisation of Anglo could actually be a help

The risk now is reputational risk. Credible institutions will simply not want to be associated with an outfit like Anglo Irish Bank.
December 24th, 2008
Botched bank job is the economics of Noddyland

Brian Lenihan is the Marie Antoinette of Irish politics. He has just done a deal with the management of the Irish banks which even the bewigged last queen of France (bred into the regime, like Lenihan) would not have tried to get away with.
December 21st, 2008
Ireland Inc gets innovative

The government is finally getting it. The €500 million innovation fund announced last Thursday is an enormously influential and intelligent move. In years to come, it may even be seen as Whitakeresque in its prescience. For the first time in a long while, we have a vision of this country that complements what is good in the economy and, more importantly, sees beyond the current malaise. In the weekend where the depth of the problems in our banking system were laid bare, it is encouraging to see that Taoiseach Brian Cowen has the capacity to think about the future.
December 17th, 2008
€10bn bailout not enough without reforming banks

The bank bailout just announced is simply not enough to right the wrongs in our financial system. And yet it is all we have.
December 15th, 2008
Lenihan must take responsibility

Has anyone broken the news to finance minister Brian Lenihan that he owns the banks? So far, this fact appears to be unclear to the minister and his civil servants.
December 10th, 2008
Brace yourself now for the Deckland Depression

It was a mirage fabricated by other people’s money. There was no miracle; it was an overdraft
December 7th, 2008
Harsh lessons of economic history

Admittedly, looking out towards the horizon of the Indian Ocean from the volcanic heights of the French island of La Reunion is not the worst place to be writing about any economic crisis
December 3rd, 2008
Why O’Leary would be a fine catch for Aer Lingus

She must have got it from her mother, who in turn got it from her mother, otherwise, she’d never have delivered the immortal lines with such certainty. When my mother pronounced, as she did on numerous occasions, the favourite put-down of the Irish Mammy, “she’s far too good for him, you know”, it seemed she was saying something so self-evidently obvious that it couldn’t be challenged.