Sitemap - 2021 - The Other Hand

Higher mortgage rates on the way? Blame Covid. Even we didn't see the 8.00pm evidence-free shutdown. It's their party and they all go when they want to.

Tory rebels hate Plan B. Just wait til they see Plan C. A look at the deteriorating Covid situation and what the data says right now. Christmas and Boris both under threat.

UK and German politics: 3 ring circus compared to grown-up governance. Inflation: Summers ponders a US recession yet US equities are at all all-time high.

Boom! Tax revenues up strongly again. Is the stage set for giveaway budgets? Where do conspiracy theorists get their beliefs? Transitory inflation is no more: it's just inflation.

Brexit and the end of the UK land-bridge? COVID: Omicron policy response becomes Moronic. What drives anti-vaxxers?

Stagflation with no sign of the stag. Economic growth resurges, at least in the US - perhaps to remarkable levels. Dollar strength no deterrent to weekend shopping trips to NYC.

Housing & vultures. Covid restrictions & revolts. Marijuana - there's an app for that.

Panto season starts early: Covid, unlike Cinderella, only comes out at midnight. Apparently. Out and about in Dublin. If the game is truly rigged which way to go: extreme right or left?

Forecasts for the economy double. Inflation also up a lot. Does debt matter? Shinners in government - mind your pension.

One year on from the first vaccine. Stock markets signalling all is now fine: rational markets or just another bubble? Why is there no ambition for Dublin?

Bank of England stumbles and sterling falls. The tax boom is getting boomier.

Global inflation and supply chain problems are getting worse. Are higher interest rates the answer? Does COP26 need a touch of CBT?

Mafia-style elites govern us all. But are they making a mistake?

Economists still don't know what causes inflation? Is it, today, a nice problem to have? Can Johnson keep his electoral coalition intact?

The state of the economy: nobody knows anything (part 42).

Booming tax revenues on both sides of the Irish Sea. Sunak & Johnson in conflict or just setting up pre-election tax cuts? Strange economics of financing de-carbonisation.

Back to the future? That 70s show...again? Reflections on how the age of abundance may be coming to an end.

A budget that butters many small parsnips but buys no votes.

Budget 2022: The verdict

The political economy of the budget: 'One of the most prosperous countries on earth' or 'a dystopian hell-hole'? The answer matters. A lot.

Booming tax revenues and difficult political choices. The madness of King Boris: He's invented anti-business Neanderthal Thatcherism.

Economic Update: The National Development Plan. And an Improving Fiscal Situation

Boris Johnson invents a new economics: The Bullingdon School

Global economy screeching to a halt? How bad will it get? The first official acknowledgement that Brexit might just have something to do with British chaos. Brexit did, after all, mean Brexit.

Irish growth forecasts on the up.

Brexit crisis. Energy crisis. China crisis.

Is an energy crisis about to derail the world economy? Brexit as it was foretold. Time to get real - and honest - about the environment

A very British famine

In conversation with journalist, author and broadcaster Duncan Weldon. '200 years of Muddling Through.' Why is the UK in its current state? Look at where it has come from.

China crisis? Cost of living crisis? It's a gas. Ireland in 2021 viewed from the 1980s: nobody would believe it.

Time to abolish the budget? Fat chance. Take fiscal policy away from politicians! Why is the system so unreformable?

Remembering 9/11

'The rise of the illiberal left'. The uselessness of economic forecasts. Your winter heating bills are going up - a lot.

Nobody knows anything

Stop Lying

The economy rebounds. Housing plans: how flimsy are the foundations? A surprising linkage: inequality causes low interest rates and high house prices. Monetary policy dominance over?

The economy roars back

Housing: a deep crisis met only by shallow thinking. Restaurants are closing because of labour shortages. The UK is short 100,000 lorry drivers. Higher pay means we have to pay more.

Stockmarket jitters: the start of the big one? Chinese attacks on corporate titans. Questioning 'conspicuous environmentalism'.

Anger and fact-free belief about house prices. Is this the age of anti-austerity? Brexit: still happening as predicted. Afghanistan: if the exit was inevitable surely the method wasn't?

Berliners are revolting (over rents). Latest economic news. The politicisation of the environment. Where are Ireland's looney toons?

Post-pandemic economies: what will they look like? More on house prices and interest rates: normality means higher rates. So things won't be normal? Australia quietly abandons zero covid?

Get interest rates up

Resuming International travel. What's China up to? Latest IMF views on the world economy. Young people and their pitchforks.

Is there a stock market bubble?

Kayfabe or magic circle?

Is it time to take a 30 year fixed mortgage? Latest update on the economy. Covid corner: 1200 scientists say the UK is wrong.

Summer in the CSO: Latest Irish economic data doesn't shine much light

Ingerland?

Hitting the beach after July 19th? Be prepared for a shock if you are renting a car. Supply chain problems are worsening - not just for autos. Johnson's gamble looks like he's going 'all in'.

Johnson's biggest gamble yet. Eurozone economy finally takes off - but for how long? Why do some journalists make it so personal?

Monty Python sketch or simulation?

Public finances for the half year: expenditure up but so are tax revenues. At least one of these trends cannot persist.

The UK government and NPHET couldn't have more different views of the world. Only one of them can be right.

Scientists say jump, government asks: how high? Should policy makers not consider the bigger picture? Will young people become revolting?

Brexit Unfolded: A short review of Chris Grey's book, published on the 5th anniversary of the referendum

Brexit Unfolded: in conversation with author Professor Chris Grey on the publication of his much awaited book.

End of the reflation trade? The mysterious NPHET opposition to antigen testing. Cracks in Boris Johnson's wall.

The great policy experiment

The delta variant is coming your way, but so is the populist plague. The G7 and the return of America: perhaps temporary but certainly welcome. A pointless trade deal with Australia.

Where is the vaccine for the populist plague?

A journalist says 'Boris Johnson is Trump's clone'. He's wrong. Johnson is worse than Trump.

G7 is not just about corporate taxes: the environment is even more important. EU and UK fall out over sausages. Out and about in London and Dublin

How's the economy doing?

Booming economies but where have all the workers gone? UK heading for big Covid trouble? Why do economists love property taxes?

Archbishop McQuaid's ghost stalks our streets. Beware the inner traffic warden. Where did the virus really come from? OECD ups its forecasts.

Reopening the economy but playing fast and loose with the common travel area? Hair & beauty expertise in a surprising quarter. Stock up on breakfast stuff?

Dominic Cummings’ lessons in Business Management

The future of house prices. The ketchup economy. The price of another pint.

Is the price of a pint a good inflation indicator?

Economic update: Brexit takes a bite out of Irish trade

Housing policy: gifting power to Sinn Fein? Is neo-liberalism dead? Brexit & trade: UK can't say all is well between GB and EU but not between GB & NI.

Lockdown pessimism from a natural optimist. Brexit could be to blame

House prices: populist posturing will make the problem worse. Global and Irish Inflation: already worse than feared? Covid corner: delays to vaccines costs lives.

UK Politics; US Jobs Disappointment; Shortages, Chips & Sex Toys

Brexit Britain: It's all about injections

How's the economy doing?

Are markets mad? Bits of the economy are booming. Bidenomics is about much more than economics. Was zero covid ever a possibility?

Irish unity & Sottish independence: looking through the wrong lens

Europe says Covid scarring is forever: America disagrees. US economy booms, Europe is in recession. Tech profits: US has them, Europe does not.

Counting the cost of Covid - properly. What could have been done better? And proper post-Covid economic policy

'Boris Johnson is a vacuum of integrity'. Would that be a Hoover, Dyson, Zanussi or Acuri?

Taxes going up in the US and Ireland; EU economy takes off; Ponies stuck in Brexit limbo

What we've been reading & watching

SMEs face many headwinds but represent future of the economy. A conversation with Neil McDonnell, CEO of ISME

A new social contract: from the organisation that you would least expect. Ambromovich would probably disagree.

Summary & Link to Jim Power Covid Study

Suppression of competition and debate.

Ignore the headlines & hype about taxation of Apple, Google, Amazon & the rest: here are the surprising facts

Irish business says the outlook is getting much better; inflation and the threat to the recovery; pandemic solidarity taxes: an idea whose time has come?

Explaining the British to the Irish. And the Irish to the British. And a bit of Americana. A short primer should tourism ever resume. (It’s actually about culture wars.)

Biden is coming for your corporation taxes; more on experts who lie and experts who just get it wrong

When Experts Lie

An eventful first quarter for both the economy and financial markets*

Spinning the Covid Data on Outdoor Risks; Review of Q1 Economies & Markets; New IMF Forecasts for the World Economy

Brexit: it's happening exactly as foretold.

THE RE-OPENING ROADMAP DOES NOT GIVE HOPE

Radical centrism. Joe Biden's plans. Wow

Buoyant stockmarkets and the third wave: will there be a reckoning?

A hedge fund in trouble. Again. Trouble ahead for all of us? And a radical suggestion: move the capital from Dublin to Belfast.

A minor Covid rant, the surprising Suez Canal, disagreeing (a bit) with Martin Sandbu, legalising recreational drugs in NY State.

A converstion with Mark Carney, ex-Governor of the Bank of England

Once more with feeling: asking the tough Covid questions

Astra and the EU: a fundamental misunderstanding about how the modern world works

A lockdown cry of pain, perhaps even protest; Varadkar tries his hand at economics

Time to consider if Level 5 restrictions may be becoming counter-productive?

Is the EU facing another existential crisis? Vaccine and economic incompetence.

Biden's boom; Is the 12 year bull market in equities over?; Davy implosion

Global economy on fire: Biden's New New Deal. What does it mean for the world?

Connecting Irish Unemployment, Exchequer Returns, Rishi Sunak & GNI*

Banks, banking and branch closures

Bonds, bubbles and toast

The Other Hand

Politics, Philosophy and Economics. And other stuff.