Comments on: The global recession is just a coincidence for Ireland

By: 2009 in review and 2010 in preview | Ronan Lyons

2009 in review and 2010 in preview | Ronan Lyons — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:32:01 +0000

[...] performances of the domestic and internationally trading sectors of the economy. Astonishingly, Ireland’s exporters have, in aggregate, been largely unaffected by the worst contraction in wo…. This is just the continuation of a long-running trend which has seen domestic income (GNP) grow at [...]

By: Cathal McCann

Cathal McCann — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:54:54 +0000

Nice post Ronan, good to hear someone telling the economic truth.

By: David Begg on the Devaluation Consensus & responses | Ronan Lyons

David Begg on the Devaluation Consensus & responses | Ronan Lyons — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:01:26 +0000

[...] economic growth. Lane argues that the best possible solution is to minimize unemployment, and – as so many of us have argued before – we had our fiscal stimulus in the good times: If Ireland had run a counter-cyclical fiscal policy during the good years, there may have been [...]

By: Irish Election » Dan Boyle [Calls for an End to] No Blame, No Shame [Culture]

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:57:59 +0000

[...] place should be blamed and shamed too? Someone tell me, what’s he up to these days?… Spinning so much the blame won’t stick, that’s what he’s up [...]

By: Irish Election » Ronan Lyons on Ireland’s Economic Woes and the Global Downturn

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:12:39 +0000

[...] Lyons of Daft shows just how unconnected our woes are to the global downturn. It’s even understandable to non-economists. Share and [...]

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:16:41 +0000

The Irish Misery Index is holding up pretty well though considering how badly the country is doing. This property "thing" will unfortunitely continue to drag down this country like none other in the EU for the next few years, sadly.

By: Ronan Lyons

Ronan Lyons — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:58:33 +0000

Hi Karl,
Germany’s fall in investment is 10%, but that’s driven by non-residential investment (down 15%) rather than by government or residential investment.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/6/49/20209188.pdf
All the German exporters are nervous and hence are not implementing their plans for expansion. So in a way, yes, they got hit by global factors while they themselves were being much more cautious! Spare a thought for the Japanese too – just coming out of their 15 years of hardly any growth and then their one rock of stability – exports – collapses.

By: karl deeter

karl deeter — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:45:15 +0000

Good post, do you have figures for Germany as opposed to the rest of the EU in one bar?

Does the decrease in investment include (for instance – property investment?) Germany didn’t have a housing bubble the way we did so what I find confounding is that the likes of Germany are having a steep GDP fall as well, they are a strong exporter that traditionally had big surpluses and unlike us they didn’t blow them all, it seems to me they got side-swiped by the more reckless nations driving down the economic road alongside them. any thoughts?

By: John Kennedy

John Kennedy — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:42:08 +0000

I agree with most of your observations here. The exporters are punching above their weight. I would argue that if we hadn’t had such an over-exposure to property and the subsequent fall-out in the construction sector, this country would still be doing well. The conundrum as I see it is we were able to stimulate the property bubble but right now when we need to stimulate growth to replace construction, they have nothing to offer