Brian M. Lucey

Tag: budget

  • Irish Budget Theatre and the Ghost of 1977

    Irish Budget Theatre and the Ghost of 1977

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    brianmlucey
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    Tuesday sees the budget, a by now largely meaningless piece of set piece theatre.  The old days when ministers were afraid to speak a word for fear of leaking have, thankfully, gone. Yet the setpiece remains, and it is a high point of the political year for the minister for finance to deliver the plans…

  • Ireland’s Elephants

    Ireland’s Elephants

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    brianmlucey
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    We need to talk about elephants. White, in the room,  dancing It doesn’t matter , elephants are where it is at. However, rather than ascertaining how to manage, evade and if needed cull same, our government, which resembles an elephants graveyard of hope, is goading and ignoring.

  • The Irish Revealed Preference for Dysfunctional Institutions

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    brianmlucey
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    British Prime Minister Harold McMillian famously replied to the question of what was most likely to trip up governments with “Events, dear boy, Events”, demonstrating the random way in which small things can spiral. Who would have thought that a government could fall on foot of children’s shoes, or because of the appointment of a…

  • Budget 2013 : Market, but not child or family friendly

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    brianmlucey
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    This is a version of a column in the Irish Examiner 6 December 2012 So now we know. The budget, like Enda Kenny and Eamonn Gilmore, is cautious, careful, technocratic and minimalist in terms of its aims. It is a holding operation, designed to do the minimum – the minimum in terms of adhering to…

  • The Austerity Dictionary

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    by

    brianmlucey
    in

    This started out as a little crowdsourced joke on Twitter, with the hashtag #austeridictionary (note the spelling). A link to the ongoing discussion/madness is https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23austeridictionary&src=hash. I used SearchHash to collate the hashtagged tweets, into a CSV folder, which I  then cleaned up in Excel. Its a bit of fun, but also like all good satire has…

  • Can we have a win-win property tax ?

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    brianmlucey
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    this is an extended and linked version of a column published in the irish examiner. There are many economic reasons to tax property, including household land or capital value. There is also the fact that taxing things that cant easily move is easier than those that do, and despite the recent collapse in the economy,…