Tag: Economics
Arthur Griffith and the National System of Political Economy
“Brushing aside the fallacies of Adam Smith and his tribe, List points out that between the individual and humanity stands, and must continue to stand, a great fact – the nation.” – Arthur Griffith, ‘The Resurrection of Hungary’ International Ideology...
The Overton Hourglass
June, 2003: shortly after take-off, an ultralight aircraft crashes near Caro, Michigan. The pilot is a newlywed man in his early forties. He dies in the wreckage. His name was Joseph Overton. In the world of politics, however, Joseph Overton...
EU-Mercosur Deal is a Symptom of Neoliberal Exhaustion
The culmination of twenty years of intermittent trade negotiations, the EU-Mercosur trade deal stands to open up fissures in Irish life. Aiming to liberalise trade barriers between the EU and the four membered South American bloc over a ten year...
Thoughts on Irish Taxation
There is much discussion about the tax code; whether it is broad based and whether we should be running surpluses. It is assumed that surpluses are the definitive measure of fiscal responsibility, though this isn't always the case. Governments ran...
A Tale of Neoliberals and Leftists
We often hear the term Neoliberal being thrown about, sometimes as description, more often demeaning, but hardly ever used as a term of self-identification. Before we go further, it is important that we make a distinction here between ‘Leftists’ and...
Ireland’s Traveller Policy: An Inherent Contradiction
The ‘National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy’ (2017 – 2021), published in June 2017 described Travellers and Roma as “among the most disadvantaged and marginalised people in Ireland”. The Report provides strong evidence for this marginalization citing for example that...
The Built-In Revolution in Free Markets
Indy100, the Independent’s sort of sideshow for the less literate, was delighted with Ryanair’s woes last month. “Theresa May hails the free market hours after Ryanair cancels flights of 400,000 people,” it crowed, the implication obviously being that if the...
Abundistan: The Perception of Infinite Resources.
Everything, except perhaps human ignorance, is finite. A telling aphorism for sure, but in the matter of economics and governance, ignorance of finite means to meet our ends is the cause of many bad outcomes. Modern politics in the post...
Promoting Economic Freedom in Ireland: Challenges and Opportunities
When it comes to economics, we are regularly told by voices on the political left that, since the foundation of the state, Ireland has been dominated by two right-wing political parties and that it is high time that the country’s...