Denmark, Australia, Anywhere

DAA Pride Barry Murphy Parody from Ciaran McCarthy on Vimeo.

All the great things about Ireland, in one short video....

Rates must go up

Andrew Sentance, MPC member, again called for higher rates in the face of growing inflationary pressures:

"The time has come to increase interest rates. We should increase them gradually and slowly if we can. But the risk of delaying interest rate rises too long is that this gradual approach may cease to be an option in the future."

Six months ago it might have been possible to gradually increase interest rates. Unfortunately, the Bank of England is so far behind the curve that only a sizable rate hike will have a significant effect on rising prices.

The faultless logic of an anarchist

No comment needed for this chart and video clip

Here is the latest data for Irish bank deposits....



And here is the regulator of the Irish banking system....

Let them eat cheese

The singing is a little rough, but still funny...

From South of Dub

Say hello to the Bubblemen - first up, Brian Cowen

When Brian Cowen became Irish Prime Minister in 2008, Ireland was regarded as one of the great economic success stories of the last 30 years. It had recorded stellar growth rates, sometimes reaching double digits. Her citizens grew wealthy as Ireland’s per capita GDP became among the highest in the world. Every small emerging market country wanted to be like Ireland.

Ireland and her growing deficit

In the late 1990s Ireland was one of the most fiscally prudent countries in Europe. It regularly recorded budget surpluses.

However, no one was watching over the banks. Throughout the last decade, Ireland's financial sector made appalling loans to property speculators and other folk of an unsavoury nature. Now, those loans can not be paid back.

Rather than passing losses onto the bank's creditors, who foolishly financed this farrago, the Irish Government decided to place the burden for paying for this disgraceful speculation on the poor taxpayer.  While the government is raising taxes, cutting services and reducing the public sector salaries, it is also taking on defaulted loans so that French and German banks don't have to reduce their dividends to their shareholders. If a government runs that kind of economic policy, it will quickly accumulate a 32 percent of GDP budget deficit.

Ironically, Ireland's mortgage holders continue to service their debts. Arrears are running at about 5 percent. That is a little higher than the UK, but given that the Irish economy has imploded, it is surprising that the default rate hasn't risen higher.

Making things worse

The Irish “rescue package” finalized over the weekend is a disaster. You can say one thing for the European Commission, the ECB and the German government: they never miss an opportunity to make things worse.

Barry Eichengreen on the Irish bailout.

Read the whole thing here....

Does this look like a sensible, coherent and thought out policy?

Or does it look like panic? The MPC must have lost its collective mind, cutting the bank rate to almost zero.

You know a country is in trouble when.....

....its ministry of finance produces a statement like this....

An Exchequer deficit of €3,721 million was recorded in the first quarter of 2009 compared to a deficit of €354 million in the same period last year. Tax revenue was down year-on-year by €2.6 billion or 23%. Total net voted expenditure was just over €680 million or 6% above expenditure levels for the same period of last year.

A ten-fold increase in the fiscal deficit; tax revenues are down almost a quarter; while expenditures are up 6 percent.

The country? Ireland.

Irish unemployment - highest for 12 years

After enjoying over a decade of extraordinary economic growth, Irish unemployment has exploded. In March, the rate hit 11 percent of the workforce.