Trade DiaryMy pessimistic outlook for the Irish economy was further reaffirmed when our leader, the man who will steer us out of these economic doldrums stated “As long as I am running this Government, I will run it as I see fit”. This was in response to the oppositions assertions that the government was “bereft of ideas and even the courage to govern”. That’s the kind of for the people talk Ireland has grown accustomed to. Our government believes in a “No, we won’t” approach instead of the “Yes we can” alternative. To outsiders it must appear as if the Irish economy is rudderless and without a captain as the crew argue over the last few morsels.
Today talks begin on cutting €2bn in public spending with the government warning higher taxes are on the way. Yesterday the revelations that the government is spending its way through €55 million a day came as no surprise. Higher taxes are a certainty if ever there was one but the inability of the government to curtail spending is what astonishes me.
In discussion by unions is a tax band increase from 41% to 48% and a 10% pay cut across the public sector. Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said “There is no section of society that can be immune from the changes that we are contemplating.” but how for will public spending pay cuts go.
The enormity of the €16.5 billion required means the €2 billion in spending cuts is only a drop in the ocean. So I wonder who gets to foot the rest of the bill. Send your answers on a postcard to Brian Cowen.
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Pretty grim news – us lot over in the UK (the place with the worthless currency) have been told that by the IMF that we are effectively screwed.
Three months ago, these same jokers were saying “Britain is uniquely placed to weather the current financial storm” – (a phrase then parroted by Gordon and Alistair and the rest of those monkeys) – now they are saying “Oops… as it turns out you are the guys most likely to be worst effected” – nice!
What I find staggering is how it took these guys this long to realise the obvious… the US was in trouble because (a) it’s financial sector was exposed to serious risk (b) it’s housing market was over-inflated and (c) the population was in serious in debt. Hmmmm… those sound familiar?
If the last 12 months have taught most intelligent citizens of nations like USA, Britain, Ireland etc. it’s that those in office or on the boards of huge companies are inept, deluded, arrogant, greedy and quite frankly stupid.
The sad fact is, any student of history would see most of these conclusions (and in fact much of the preceding problems – i.e., massive overleveraging) are nothing new. Come on guys, 1929 wasn’t that long ago that it should be erased from the collective consciousness of the entire economic community.
Which raises the question – were they really that stupid and blind to the warnings of history? Those cynical amongst us might suggest they knew full well that the house of cards was gonna come down sooner or later, so all they were worried about was making sure they weren’t in it when it did.
(Again -history would suggest that there were plenty of those back in the summer ’29).
For me the most depressing fact of all of this seems to be that fundamentally ‘we’ (by this I mean the collective of human kind) will always be doomed to repeat this same sad cycle over and over again, since at its root lies one simple human emotion. Greed.