Articles

The only thing that can stop the euro from breaking apart in the short term is old-fashioned capital controls. Otherwise, more and more money will flow from the periphery to the core. The weaker the peripheral countries become, the higher the risk of political instability and the greater the risk of a change in policy….

What we are seeing now is the breakdown of conventional wisdom in Europe. With respect to the Euro, conventional wisdom is a strange and stubborn commodity. Normally it is technocrats who are at the vanguard of conventional wisdom. Theses technocrats don’t have to work in the public service. They can hide in dynamic companies for…

When I was a boy, there was a very popular game played by all the kids on our road. It was called “clackers”. It involved two plastic balls on two strings tied together at the top. The balls hit off each other with force making a “clack” noise. Once one ball hit the other, the…

Thirty-one years ago this week the great Bob Marley passed away and ascended to the great Rasta heaven in the sky. For most of us, Marley was reggae and reggae was Marley. I remember the day he played in Dalymount in the summer of 1980. What I actually remember most (I was too young to…

Let’s talk about Germany. What does Germany want? Why is it important? How does what the Germans want affect us? This week, we have an American flavour to the column because I am writing this from southern California, where I have just had the pleasure of listening to probably the most important player in the…

Yesterday was International Workers’ Day. It was celebrated all over Europe with public holidays. It is a bit ironic that on the day that Europeans celebrate our workers so many millions of these workers are on the dole. Traditionally, periods of high unemployment are also periods of social and political change. It is easy to…

Never mind the likes of Messi, Ronaldo or Drogba; never mind Barcelona, Chelsea or Real. In our house, when it comes to football at the weekends, there is only one team: the Cabinteely FC under-10s. Every Saturday morning, under the watchful eye of Michael, our Scottish manager who is Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalglish and David…

Financially, Spain is like Ireland but it is much, much bigger. There is little doubt that Spain will need a massive bailout. The question is, who has the money to bail out Europe’s fourth-largest economy, and when Spain topples what happens to Italy and what happens to the euro? The European response to the fact…

There is a famous scene in the 1976 film, The Outlaw Josey Wales, starring Clint Eastwood as the eponymous hero. During a particularly brilliant exchange, the bounty hunter Fletcher, hot on the heels of Wales, comes out with an inspired put-down to the cowardly senator who is trying to pull the wool over his eyes….

This weekend, friends from Uruguay visited. For Guillermo O’Neill and his wife Alessandra Lawlor, the trip was a sort of homecoming. They are part of the great Irish Tribe down in Latin America. Their great grandparents left here — from Navan — at the turn of the 20th Century and they have kept their Irish…