Asking the Right Questions
Annual budget sideshow is just a distraction
“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes Another year, another budget! This time every year in Ireland the focus moves to the budget announcement of the Irish government. We are forced…
Economic Growth and Asset Prices…..
The OECD released their latest Interim Economic Outlook, warning that “the global economy is projected to grow at a slower pace this year than in 2015, with only a modest uptick expected in 2017”. This is another case of groundhog day, for years now…
Janet Yellen grunging to Nirvana
Last week marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Nirvana’s iconoclastic album, Nevermind, September 24th 1991. The album catapulted the band and the genre of music into the commercial mainstream, something that was perhaps too much for front man Kurt Cobain to handle….
Key points from Janet Yellen’s speech
In April I wrote a blog “Central banks and the certain uncertainty paradox”, reminding everyone that these institutions are no more certain than anyone else about how economic conditions will unfold. Still, market participants continue to hang on every word from the leaders of…
Irish GDP data; no leprechauns in Ireland Paul
The National Accounts released by the Central Statistics Office last week caused quite a stir, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) up a whopping 26.3% in 2015. US Economist Paul Krugman’s tweet made the headlines, putting the increase down to “Leprechaun economics”. Ah such a…
Thoughts on BREXIT, breaking up with Europe
Sacré bleu! Hearts are breaking across Europe, as the European establishment has been jolted by the surprise result that Britain has voted to leave. As one might expect the initial reaction has been an emotional one, the innate fight-or-flight response of market participants has…
Central banks and the certain uncertainty paradox
“Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.” – Voltaire US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen lifted markets midweek by pouring cold water on recent comments from a number of regional US Federal Reserve Presidents. In a speech at the Economic Club…
Irish policy parallels to be found in Colombia
Article appeared in The Examiner March 29th 2016 While I have only been loosely following financial markets over the last three weeks – after all in the short-term it is all just noise – my three weeks in Colombia have provided me with new perspectives and…
Colombia, not too different from Ireland
While I have only been loosely following markets over the last three weeks, after all in the short term it is all just noise, my three weeks in Colombia have provided me with new perspectives and insights that I look forward to sharing on…
Weekly Market Update: February 1st 2016
Market Recap Global equity markets enjoyed another positive week, buoyed by further support from the major Central Banks, this time the Bank of Japan (BOJ) with the introduction of negative interest rates. As well, speculation of a possible production cut by OPEC pushed oil…
