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You can do worse than sit on a Tuesday afternoon in a little cafe about 20 yards from the Coliseum and watch five Chinese tourists getting their photos taken with three chain-smoking Italians dressed up as Roman gladiators. There is something poignant about looking at the Italians in the epicentre of the greatest empire Europe…

Water into wine? I think not. Rather than talk about who went ‘mad borrowing’ last week, let’s focus on why it happened, because I want to explain what is happening right now in the financial markets. I would also like to make the point that central banks are becoming – yet again – instruments of…

When all the people you read every week for information are talking about the same report, you know that you should read it. From Paul Krugman on the left to John Mauldin on the right, some of my favourite reads of the week are citing a McKinsey Consulting report on global debt. Reading through it,…

Last weekend, I went to see Roddy Doyle’s clever adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector at the Abbey. Go to see it if you can – it is wonderful. Of the many highlights, one of the most memorable is Don Wycherley’s performance as the Mayor. As I left the theatre, I was marvelling at Wycherley’s…

In July 2008, just as the falls in property prices were beginning to be really felt, this column threw up a chart of what had happened to the property market in Japan. It suggested that we would follow the Japanese path. Up to then, many people felt that the market would stabilise or lose maybe…

The European debt crisis is moving swiftly to the next phase following the downgrade of France and the collapse of the Greek negotiations with its creditors last Friday night. It is becoming increasingly obvious that there will be no deal in Greece. This is good news because it means the end of the pass-the-parcel-ponzi-scheme, whereby…

This week, the column is going to focus on the one country that has been receiving thousands of young Irish people for the past three or four years, giving them a chance when there were none at home. The question I pose this week is: what will happen to Irish emigration to Australia when the…

One of the many advantages of advising a large Italian company – apart from getting paid on time – is that every now and then, you get invited to symposiums in lovely parts of Europe’s most beautiful country. This year, the company – a proper manufacturing company that has specialised in design excellence, so that…

Happy New Year and I sincerely hope it is a good one — for all of us. Around this time it is customary for economists to write about what the new year might hold, as if a collective new year’s resolution can have an impact on the economic or business cycle. The economy doesn’t work…

Did your mother ever tell you to be afraid of umbrellas because they could take your eye out? When I was a child, the humble umbrella transformed itself into a weapon of mass destruction in our house capable of all classes of contortions, which would lead directly to poking some misfortunate’s eye out. I have no idea where the…