Debt

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,…

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…

Exactly three years ago this week, this column argued that this financial crisis might result in Ireland (and others) leaving the euro. The argument was not based on any ideological/political antipathy to the currency but on some basic economic analysis about how debt crises and associated recessions end. Unfortunately, it is very easy to use…

I remember it so distinctly. Mum allowed me to stay up to watch it even though it was a school night and it meant going to bed after midnight. The reception was appalling on our tiny “PYE” television in the corner of the kitchen. But Scotland were playing Holland in the 1978 World Cup and…

By playing hardball with the French and Germans this weekend, Greece has bravely sparked a liberation which could topple the eurozone as we know it – and not a minute too soon If you have ever tried to learn German, you will know that reading it is much more difficult than speaking it. The problem…

I belong to an oppressed sect. Like every sect, we are bonded by strange rituals, unusual texts, strange chants and ferociously long memories. Past adventures gel us together, as do journeys made and risks taken. We know that we are on the true path and that, unlike the other imitators, we are in possession of…

Have you ever heard the expression “marry me now, the love will come later”? In the old days when a couple was forced together by the matchmaker, this gradual process of emotional osmosis was supposed to happen as time and loneliness took their course. Often it didn’t and, as a result, Ireland was a country…

I am writing this on the New York subway hurtling downtown from the Upper East Side towards Wall Street. The old Jewish lady, all coiffed and nailed, is putting on her lipstick intently, oblivious to the rest of the crowded train. Two students chat away about the film, The Jersey Shore, while the rest of…

Have you ever heard of a ‘debt audit’? It is a fascinating idea. Together with a referendum on paying bankers and bondholders, a debt audit is another important piece of weaponry which could be deployed by the new government in debt negotiations in the weeks and months ahead. Before we discuss the debt audit, let’s…

The way things are going, by the end of next year, the interest payment on our total debts — just the interest payments — might well be 85pc of the 2010 income tax take. Income tax in 2010 was €14.125bn and with all the bank debt we are taking on, the interest payments by the…