Comments on: People making cuts all over the place

By: Donagh

Donagh — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:14:13 +0000

Seán, I was extremely reluctant to put forward thoughts on John Gormley’s speech, especially as I was writing in a hurry. So perhaps it should have been ‘I really hope no one reads this…’ But blogs are like cereal boxes. If you put text on them, people will read it.

Michael, McWilliams point about our debt going up to 100% GDP is absolute heresy at the moment, but he pointed out that there is a contradication between those who advocate that we should remain in a currency union while also demanding budgetary austerity. It suggests that you have to ’show’ that you can keep your budget balance so that some unspecified ‘fund’ has the confidence in your ability to make repayments once the economy picks up again. There has been no discussion, apart from some vague reference to the word ‘market’ about what form this fund would take. As McWilliams says:

There is no mythical pent-up flood of money waiting to rush into Ireland once we’ve shown that we can hit some budget target or other. Show me a country that has benefited from this argument in the past 12 months. They don’t exist.

I think that link is spam.

By: Michael Taft

Michael Taft — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:47:56 +0000

David McWilliams’ article was certainly a breath of fresh air. While tax cuts is part of the traditional ‘Keynesian’ armoury, I’d be dubious about their effects in the Irish context. Our deficit is mostly structural, not cyclical; and with so much private household debt we would find a disproportionate amount going to paying down debt. However, I wouldn’t quibble so much. We need to find a way to stimulate consumer spending otherwise our sectors reliant on domestic demand will really get hammered (even more). My favourite part of the article was, hey, what does it matter if our debt goes up to 100% of GDP or more. He’s right. Our orthodox friends remind me of military commanders, faced with an imminent invasion that will occupy and destroy the country, but worrying about their requisitions bill because it might put the country’s deficit under strain.

The debt deferral is also something to be seriously considered. I remember Conor putting forward the idea here (even before McWilliams) of writing down mortgage debt on overpriced property. I’d certainly like to see how that would work and how it would impact on an already fragile banking system. The link above - the National Debt and Mortgage Relief Inititive - doesn’t seem to be working. Do you know anything about it?

By: National Debt And Mortgage Relief Initiative | Debt Relief Programs

National Debt And Mortgage Relief Initiative | Debt Relief Programs — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 04:36:10 +0000

[…] Dublin Opinion » Blog Archive » People making cuts all over the place […]

By: Seán Báite

Seán Báite — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:50:53 +0000

orthodox economists cue up to piss all over it
I left Ireland in 1999 convinced that the housing stock was ridiculously overvalued and that no good could come of it and that I’d be a fool to try to buy into it.
At the time, there was a horde of gobdaw ‘economic experts’ constantly rabitting on that ‘negative equity can’t happen in the Irish model’.
I think they spent most of the ensuing decade spouting the same shite.
I’ve been waiting for a link to come up to the photo gallery of whatever stretch of high tension power line they were strung up from. I’ve been waiting in vain - now I see they’re still intact enough to piss on whoever isn’t signed up to their gobdaw consensus… What’s wrong wi’ youse up there ??

but no one is going to read this anyway…
I did ! What is it ? a report about how poor Kenny got killed ??
Waiting for the refined conspiracy theory….