Category: Economics
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Biggest outlay in US history
If you are thinking that the current economic crisis is a flash in the pan, or something that will be over anytime soon, you may want to look at these figures compiled by Jim Bianco. He measured the inflation adjusted cost of various historical spending by the US government. • Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion,…
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Peter Schiff on the money
Via Andrew. Things are not looking pretty. Run on the dollar. No sign of a bottom.
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Selling your soul at Moody's
Rating agency Moody’s employee emails: Employees at Moody’s Investors Service told executives that issuing dubious creditworthy ratings to mortgage-backed securities made it appear they were incompetent or “sold our soul to the devil for revenue,” according to e-mails obtained by U.S. House investigators. I love this one: An e-mail that a S&P employee wrote to…
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Dell to leave Limerick?
Dell just announced the sale of a call centre in El Salvador. An announcement about its Irish operation could soon follow. Keep an eye out. As I said last month, Dell leaving Limerick, or indeed Ireland, is inevitable. The job losses will be substantial.
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Bank bailout in Ireland
Well while I was in Georgia the entire banking industry went into meltdown. And in Ireland the FF government has made the odd decision to guarantee all bank deposits in all banks. A €400bn bailout for the banks. We are in the tank for almost twice our own GDP. Rightly, the EU is looking at…
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HP cut 25,000 jobs
No word yet on whether the job cuts include Irish staff. Hewlett Packard, which acquired Electronic Data Systems for nearly $14 billion this summer, plans to trim its company-wide workforce by nearly 8 percent as part of that acquisition. Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP will announce restructuring plans for the EDS division to “streamline costs, invest…
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Afghan poppies
The movement of a turbine into Afghanistan makes for fascinating reading. The Economist concludes: Electricity is the basis of any long-term economic development, which in turn is essential to winning hearts and minds. Without power there can be no factories to draw young men away from the Taliban; and without refrigeration there is little hope…
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The housing bubble
I came across this over at the Pin. Martenson posted this presentation as an explanation of the US housing bubble a couple of weeks ago. You could take everything he says and apply it to our own housing bubble. It’s very well worth a look. I am trying to get data together on our housing…
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Africa and Coca-Cola
AFRICANS buy 36 billion bottles of Coke a year. Because the price is set so low—around 20-30 American cents, less than the price of the average newspaper—and because sales are so minutely analysed by Coca-Cola, the Coke bottle may be one of the continent’s best trackers of stability and prosperity. In other words, Coca-Cola sells…
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Economic and property doom in Ireland
The Sunday papers were awash with property articles today. I guess I am in a similar position to fellow blogger Una Mullaly in that I am of a similar age (or slightly older) and never bought a property. Although this was also partly because I could never afford one. Una’s piece is the most read…