Tag: debt
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Lessons for 2015 from 1919…
In 1919 Lord Keynes penned a wonderful tome, The Economic Consequences of the Peace. It is a profound work, written by him to express his concern, as an economist, with the punitive and inflexible approach being taken to German debt. It contains nary an equation but is one of the best pieces of economic analysis…
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Debt and growth revisited..does high debt really slow growth?
http://qz.com/88781/after-crunching-reinhart-and-rogoffs-data-weve-concluded-that-high-debt-does-not-cause-low-growth/ An interesting re evaluation of the longterm effects of debt. Here is the bottom line. Based on economic theory, it would be surprising indeed if high levels of national debt didn’t have at least some slow, corrosive negative effect on economic growth. And we still worry about the effects of debt. But the two of…
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Ireland should give one (1) cheer for the Greek debt deal.
So, once again (what is it now, the fourth time?) we have a greek debt deal. Great. Except, its not. The essence of this deal (which has delayed funds since may..) is a maturity extension and a rate reduction on existing and new Greek debt. This will reduce the present value of greek debt and make…
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After Merkel…Ireland’s unpalatable choices
So, it seems now that Dr Merkel backs the idea that no, there should be no retrospective debt deal. Where does that leave us? We have invested 20+ billion into the pillar banks (or another word starting with P and ending in X as a noted economist of many years standing is wont to call…
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Irish junior finance minister says national debt is unsustainable
Is our debt unsustainable? One Irish minister for finance thinks so….
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The Quantum Mechanics of Irish Debt
This is an extended version of a column published in the irish examiner. The Irish government find themselves on the horns of a dilemma. They, quite properly, seek a write down, from somebody, anybody, of a large part of the banking debt, which has accumulated. At the same time they wish to convince the markets…
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Bandaid or bazooka? What the ECB unveiled…
The ECB yesterday unleashed another acronym, to add to the stew. This time (it’s different?) we have Outright Monetary Transactions. What this means in detail is dissected in the newspapers and blogs. See in particular Constantin Gurdgiv, the Irish times, and the guardian for good and differing takes. In practice the ECB will purchase lots…