Following last weekend’s European elections, commentators have highlighted a general move to the right and the usual protest vote. An examination of country-level results reveals that the move to the right may be driven more by punishment of governing parties for economic failures than any idealogical shift.
Relationship between government deficits and European election results
Two weeks ago, I examined the IMF’s estimates for growth prospects in 2009 and came to the conclusion that in a year where countries such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Laos are among the world’s fastest growing economies, more open economies are being hit by a collapse in the globalized consumer’s demand.
The temptation may be to [...]
Earlier this year, I calculated average salary estimates for the public and private sectors in Ireland. The answer, that the average worker in the private sector earned €40,000 last year, almost €10,000 less than their public sector counterpart, has proved if not controversial than certainly a starting point for debate. Given some of the comments [...]
Ricky Gervais has a very funny sketch about how ludicrous the children’s rhyme, Humpty Dumpty, is. In particular, employing horses, who don’t even have thumbs let alone opposable ones, to put him back together again. Actually, it’s so good, I’m going to embed it here:
[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hYytaZ06Hco]
Anyway, spurious introduction aside, apparently according to the Financial Times (thank [...]
