Is Irish Society being Sacrificed to Save the Bond Market? Lecture & Debate featuring Michael O'Sullivan
Live stream from the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.
Nobel Prize Winner Slams ESRI
Each day brings new evidence of the damage being done by the Government's senseless austerity measures - record job losses, falling tax receipts. And yet some seem to believe that the cure for our economic ills lies with even greater cuts - as seen in the most recent report from the ESRI. But their call for more cuts has drawn a strong response from Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman. Read why he thinks the ESRI's analysis is, literally, for the fairies.
'True Unemployment' Rate could be 20%
Ireland's 'true unemployment' rate could be close to 20% says Congress Economic Advisor Paul Sweeney.
He says that the official figures "significantly underestimate the 'true' level of unemployment and thus the scale of the social and economic devastation in communities across the country."
"When you add in the tens of thousands who have been forced to emigrate, the tens of thousands who have stayed in or returned to education for the same reason and the many thousands who want full time work but can only get part time or casual jobs, you get a more accurate picture of the scale of the problem and its huge social impact.
"Taking those numbers into account, the true unemployment figure could be close to 20%.
He points out that the CSO itself had calculated this rate - comprised of the unemployed and 'discouraged workers' - as having risen to 17%.
"Congress believes it is closer to 20 percent - an all time high.. We need a major reordering of Government priorities with people placed firmly before banks and private profit. Their deflationary policies are taking money out of the economy and destroying jobs."
Shifting the Burden
Cover image for Shifting the BurdenWhy the Government wants to load the cost of the collapse onto the less well off and why their plan will just make things worse
In the latter half of 2009, the Government formulated a plan to deal with the economic crisis. Key elements of that plan were unveiled on Budget Day in December.
Click here to view the Shifting the Burden
But there are parts of the plan they won't reveal in public because, at its core, lies a determination to load the full cost of the collapse onto working people and the poor.
Be they wage earners, pensioners or social welfare recipients, their pockets will be picked to finance the 'recovery'.
But there will be no recovery as a result of this strategy - it will simply make matters worse. This is confirmed by the latest CSO figures (March 2010), which show the economy mired in the worst slump in 60 years with no signs of improvement.The Government plan is failing because it is based on false assumptions, a complete misreading of the global crisis and it ignores all the warnings from history.
Building an Alternative Economic Vision
The Union Post