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January 28th, 2009
A mortgage plan that will save a whole generation
What will happen to mortgages when unemployment rises to 15pc? How many first-time buyers, who bought at the top of the boom, will default? Will the banks throw them out on the streets and, if this happens, what benefit will the newly recapitalised banks get from an empty house with no tenant and a defaulted mortgage?
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January 26th, 2009
Time for us to start singing from a different hymn sheet
Are we waltzing ourselves up an economic cul-de-sac without realising it? Are we making a bad situation worse?
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January 21st, 2009
New president needs to run up a frightening debt
Could Obama be remembered as the man who presided over the greatest hyperinflation the world has ever see? At the moment, with unemployment rising, companies going to the wall and prices falling everywhere, the mention of hyperinflation seems ridiculous, that is until you examine what the new president wants to do.
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January 18th, 2009
Anglo fiasco is Ireland’s Enron
Anglo Irish Bank is Ireland’s Enron, and those responsible for destroying shareholders’ assets should be pursued accordingly. It’s not just the shareholders: the system has also failed the people miserably. We are now in a position where nobody trusts us. The minute Anglo was nationalised, the risk on Irish government debt jumped significantly because this disaster will be paid for by all of us. Our national debt has just – effectively – doubled and dodgy banks are now contaminating everything associated with Ireland.
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January 16th, 2009
Leviathan: Ireland in the Global Market
Ireland in the Global Market : Are our Economy and Banks an International Embarrassment?
8 PM ’til LATE
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3RD
THE BUTTON FACTORY,
TEMPLE BAR, DUBLIN
In association with Delta Index
Join host David McWilliams and a panel of experts including former Finance Minister, Alan Dukes; columnist John Waters; John O’Shea of GOAL; Sinn Féin councillor, Killian Forde; and PR [...] -
January 14th, 2009
Cold facts of how we could be ‘Iceland inside the euro’
Could the unthinkable come to pass here? Could Ireland default on its sovereign debt? The answer is yes. Such a disaster is now quite possible. In the same way as a family can end up losing the house, the car, everything, a country, too, can fail to make its repayments. At the moment, such thoughts are heresy; but so, too, was questioning the property boom a mere four or five years ago.
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January 11th, 2009
Fight for our right to prosperity
This is war. Waterford Crystal’s collapse followed by Dell’s decision to close has signalled the opening salvoes in the war for Irish prosperity. With unemployment soaring, we are fighting on two fronts.
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January 7th, 2009
Expect tears and much angst in Budget X Factor
Think Simon Cowell and ‘the X Factor’. Think of an aspirant performer going through the motions before the denouement carried out by a cynical panel. Imagine the crestfallen starlet appealing to the audience, hoping against hope that some higher power will prevent the humiliation of being discarded. With that image in your mind, consider the scenes in the Department of Finance over the next few weeks.
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January 5th, 2009
Change? Yes we can and must
Now that even last year’s cheerleaders have accepted that the Irish boom was more or less ‘hot air’, inflated by easy credit, there is little point in going over the rights and wrongs of what happened. The case is clear: an economically challenged government, perniciously influenced by the interests of the housing lobby, blew it. The entire Irish episode will be studied internationally in years to come as an example of how not to do things.
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