From the Irish Times, 29th July 2009. As the paper notes "David Begg is general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and a member of The Irish Times Trust".

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opi ... 74531.html

Blue Horseshoe

Boy they're really clinging onto that "domestic demand" shtick for dear life. It must be the most important sector of the economy, rivaling the banks.

There was lots of great little goodies thrown at the beardy union bosses during the boom!
Enough seats on boards to stock an Ikea shop.
Just to keep them sweet like.

I think taking on the deflationist slash and burn consensus is no bad thing.

Debate should be welcomed on what is hardening into an unquestionable orthodoxy of what needs to be done

Unless you're offering viable alternatives yes it's a bad thing. All he's doing is offering simplistic and inaccurate reasoning to people already predisposed to not wanting spending cuts (i.e. people with a vested interest in spending not being cut).

The US is a completely different economy to Ireland's - they're not relying on outside investment to get out of this mess and they have their own currency. If you want to compare with the US you'd be better to compare Ireland to California which is in the midst of its own crisis. Nobody is seriously suggesting they borrow even more (they can't anyway) to stimulate the economy.

If this is the level of shite that you need to be able to write to get on the board of the Central Bank or the ESRI, it is no wonder the country is fubared.

And director of the Central Bank
and Aer Lingus

Well there seems to be a fair few people over here http://www.progressive-economy.ie/
that are willing to argue the toss. Personally, I’m not sure where I stand. It truly is rock and a hard place stuff.

I just cant help but instinctively feel that slashing the wages of a load of civil servants and firing a few thousands more will do more harm than good.

It is a great idea in theory. Government spends to counteract the decline in private sector spending.

Unfortunately our reality is very different.
The Irish government is already borrowing 18% of GNP. We just cannot afford to borrow anymore and repay it.

It's that or double the tax take of the economy. How much harm do you think that'll cause?

But we can afford NAMA?

I dont think begg gets it.
We are running a €20bln annual deficit.
We cant afford it.
There is no alternative.

Is anyone else here genuinely concerned that a person like begg holds so many directorships and is in a position of influence ?

Sing it from the rooftops.

Of course not.

I agree. So I find it highly unpersuasive when someone talks about the problems of reducing demand and the risks of relying on global trade - sure ok they're bad and risky, but what exactly are we supposed to be doing? I have to wonder where he thinks money comes from because he appears to think we can run an economy based purely on government spending, much safer than that risky export thingy.