This post examines the transition from NAMA 1.0, the saviour of Ireland’s financial system, to NAMA 2.0, an entity hell-bent on not making a loss under any circumstances. While ostensibly a safer deal for taxpayers, the true cost to the real economy of such a NAMA is only beginning to be understood. Read more
This post reviews the latest Daft Rental Report. It finds good news for tenants, including new and returning students, who face lower rents for the third year in a row, and good news for landlords, with rents largely static for the second report in a row. The total level of supply, however, means that the rental market is still very fragile. Read more
This joint post with Brian Lucey examines one hundred different ways of spending the €25bn that the European Commission approved last week for the Irish government to spend on recapitalising Anglo-Irish Bank. They range from the very practical (fight malaria) to the very amibitious (space elevators) to the very ridiculous (detach Cork). All of them give a good idea of just what a huge number €25,000,000,000 is! Read more
Last month, Ireland’s National Competitiveness Council published a report on the cost of doing business in Ireland. This post reviews some very important findings outlined in that report, in particular the importance of labour costs in a services-based economy and how much the costs of utilities and property actually matter for Ireland’s competitiveness. Read more
This post reviews how the wage bill changed across different sectors during 2009, using the latest CSO figures on hours worked and wages paid. Construction and finance have their own issues, but the most interesting comparison is between the public service, where the pay bill still has not fallen, and the rest of the private sector, where it has fallen by 13%. The only sustainable solution involves connecting what public service organisations do back up with how they finance what they do. Read more