THE GAME IS UP
Armageddon, Doomsday. Take your pick of scenarios – the main stories on all of the quality Sundays are practically interchangeable; and the end is most definitely nigh.
Tag: economics
DEPT OF FINANCE PROJECTIONS
The Department of Finance isn’t very good with numbers apparently. In a Halloween-themed news focus “House of Horrors” The Sunday Times asks: with a finance department that gets it wrong so often, should we all be scared?
PRICE HIKES
Fears of impending international food shortages, rising fuel costs and increased subsidies for biofuels have combined to attract increased interest from investors in food and agriculture stocks, The Sunday Independent reports.
IT’s THE ECONOMY STUPID!
This week’s Sunday newspapers invented a whole new genre of misery lit with the main theme being the sheer scale of the economic crises in which we find ourselves. The analogy doesn’t end there: the coverage does tend to induce page-turning and the ending doesn’t look pretty.
A NEW PROCLAMATION
It’s over. The Irish love affair with property ownership is coming to an end and in future people will rent rather than buy, according to a new book by Gerard O’Neill, the chairman of market research company, Amarach.
CENTRAL BANK
Having failed to spot the patently obvious a couple of times, the Central Bank admits it will overhaul its forecasting skills but that “there is no explicit budget for this”, the Sunday Independent reports.
ELECTRICITY PRICE RISE
The cost of electricity will increase from October by an average of 5% for households and €100 a year for businesses, the Sunday Business Post reports. The move comes on the back of the energy regulator’s need to raise €156m to pay for a levy to subsidise peat and renewable energy producers.
CONSUMER RETAIL PRICES
Beer, chocolate, bread, butter, cheese and a host of other food and drink staples could rise in price by at least 10% by the end of the year because of volatile commodity markets, the Sunday Independent reports.
THE ONLY WAY IS UP?
The OECD became the latest forecaster to raise its forecast for the Irish economy which it did last month as part of its twice-yearly Economic Outlook.
The latest projection from the Paris-based policy advice body envisages that the Irish economy will contract by 0.7% on average this year in GDP terms, much less than the 2.3% decline projected in its previous forecast round in November. Moreover, its forecast for next year was revised up by even more. The economy is now expected to grow by 3% in 2011, up considerably from the 1% it was pencilling in in November.
LOSING MONEY BY MAKING MONEY
It must be the ultimate recession story – the State has lost money by making money.
DEBT LAWS PREVENT INVESTMENT
Ireland’s archaic bankruptcy laws are acting as a disincentive to investment – so says Craig Barrett, the recently retired chairman of technology giant Intel. Speaking to the Sunday Times prior to the Engineers Ireland annual conference this week, he said that one of the key factors in reviving the Irish economy would be the growth of indigenous business.
The Envy of the World
What would you do if you find yourself in a business sector that is going down the pan? Get into one that isn’t, of course. Prominent estate agent Ken MacDonald and mortgage broker Frank Conway are about to launch a debt mediation service for troubled borrowers, The Sunday Business Post reports.
For an introductory fee of €495 and a flat fee of €45 a month Credecare, which is expected to advertise for staff this week, will act as an intermediary between creditors and debtors who find themselves in financial trouble.
George Lee
The former Fine Gael TD and returning RTE journalist was ubiquitous in the Sunday papers, even though it has been almost a week since he announced his departure from politics.
Aside from the analysis of the fallout for the political system – a topic that every pundit seems to have a view on ad nauseum – there are a few attempts to try to report on the substance of George Economics.