Will You Help Us Get the Water Flowing? | Amnesty International. How Israel is squeezing the life out of Palestinian communities An Israeli government determined to drive Palestinians off their land, making way for even [Read More]
Have you noticed the endless stream of economic experts telling us about things we don’t understand, in a language we have never heard? For example, you may have heard the term ‘quantitative easing’ mentioned, which actually means ‘printing more paper money’. What it does not tell you is that this is effectively money borrowed today from our taxes tomorrow. There are 100’s of similar examples. These so-called economic experts are the very people who could not forecast the largest economic collapse in the history of the State. These are the same people who told you that house prices would continue to rise. These are the people who talk about “green shoots of recovery”. These are the people who have consistently lied to you, whether this was maliciously or through incompetence, you can decide yourself. [Read More]
Recently, The Minister for Trade Enterprise and (Un)Employment Mr. Batt O’Keeffe ,announced the creation of 50 high-tech jobs, at a cost of €20 million. Not surprisingly these jobs are are to be created in his constituency. Think about that for a moment, €400,000 for each job created. And even then, the profits are repatriated to the parent companies Country of origin. [Read More]
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Over the last week or so we have all witnessed the death, destruction and incomprehensible suffering of the people of Haiti. Our response to this has varied from collectively admitting that, as bad as things are here in Ireland, they don’t even begin to compare with what is happening in Haiti to indifference.
Thankfully many of us have been sufficiently moved to make financial contributions to the non-governmental organisations which are operating on the ground there. In most cases we feel that this is the very least we can do and also wish we could do more. Personally, I think we can and it only takes a little bit of effort. Let me explain.
While observing the latest updates regarding the international effort to assist people in Haiti, a rather bizarre thought entered my head. I say rather bizarre because on the face of it it seems to be neither empathetic or justified but if you bear with me, you will hopefully see that the way in which we respond to human suffering appears to be determined by how detached we are from it. [Read More]
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The ‘Associated Loans’ are the amount of money that was lent to borrowers which was secured against the anticipated increase in the value of the underlying asset! The formula used to calculate the anticipated increase in value must be the same as used to calculate the length of a piece of string…. [Read More]
Why the public outcry over what will be the ‘most draconian’ budget in the history of the State ? The reason I ask is assuming that it does make it through the Dail vote all that it will have achieved is getting an additional €4 Billion into our public piggy bank. ‘ €4 billion, that’s an enormous amount of additional revenue” ? I hear you cry. It is enormous but it is not nearly enough. Unfortunately, since I pointed out in a previous posting (economic-civil-war-revisited ) the actual amount of our debt has increased by a further €8 Billion, simply because the Government did not act back in February when they knew the scale of the problem. If that’s not bad enough, next years spending will increase by an additional €5 Billion compared to this year ! [Read More]
Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been a week since my last confession.
During the week I lost my temper on at least two occasions. The first time, one of the pupils was playacting during breakfast and I felt the need to discipline him. I picked him up by the ear and slapped him across the face twice, just after I let go of his ear. When I walked back up the dining room I noticed that his nose was bleeding into his breakfast cereal, so I asked him to go to his room. The second occasion was somewhat more serious…. [Read More]
In just the last two weeks, four restaurants and a bookshop have closed in my area. Having spoken with some of the owners, who have been through previous recessions, it became very clear that this recession is unlike any other and far deeper in its reach. Instead of concentrating on the present headlines regarding bank remuneration or private versus public service workers, I have decided to take much more of a “helicopter” view of our present situation and how we all contributed to it more importantly. How we can all do something constructive to get out of it. As much as I do not wish to be a bearer of bad news, unfortunately our economy is going to get a lot worse. I will not go into the reasons why it will get worse now, but by April of next year we will truly understand the meaning of a recession. [Read More]
The people are angry. An understatement you might say, but there is no doubt that the mood in the country has changed significantly in the last few months people are angry, frustrated and close to despair. There is a palpable sense that the country is lurching from one economic crisis to another and that the proposed solutions are being made up on the hoof. [Read More]
I first posted this article Feb 12th 2009 and although my timing was out by a few months the articles content is now more relevant than ever, particulary as members of the public are finally waking up to crisis that we are all in. As of the end of sept. 2009 the National Debt stood at 77,754,000,000 Euros or €35,342 for every worker in the Country (a loan which you personally must pay back). This will rise to €54,909 within three years even taking account of having had a reduction in the national budget of €4 billion in each of these years! You may notice that the term ‘Economic Civil War’ appeared here first…… [Read More]
Copyright (C) Eamonn Blaney (2006 - 2020)
