Business and Finance News
Budget 2016 Day: Noonan will woo Irish voters from 2:15pm
Budget 2016 Day: Michael Noonan, finance minister, will begin his Budget statement at 2:15pm today and he is expected to confirm the official leaks in recent weeks of a package of tax cuts and spending hikes worth €3bn that the Government hopes will woo Irish voters in advance of an early 2016 general election.
One-handed economists, Nobels and economics as a science
“Give me a one-handed economist! All my economists say, ‘On the one hand’ and ‘On the other,'” Harry Truman, US president 1945-1953, once said, and Monday’s announcement of what is commonly called the Nobel Prize in Economics raises a perennial questio…
Irish Budget 2016: Pre-election giveaway doubles to €3bn
Irish Budget 2016: Michael Noonan, finance minister, has the money to spend and he has doubled the total pre-election giveaway to €3bn in tax cuts and spending rises, which he will announce on Budget Day tomorrow — Tuesday 13 Oct.
Canada and Ireland face similar innovation policy challenges
Canada will hold a general election on 19 Oct and with the economy confirmed on 1 Sept to have been in recession in the first half of 2015 due to the collapse in oil prices, the three main political parties have policies to improve on the dismal innovation performance. However, Jim Balsillie, co-founder of Research In Motion (RIM), now BlackBerry Ltd., says the maker of the world’s first smartphone, was an anomaly in Canada and the country “isn’t equipped for global competition.” Last July Damien English, minister of state for research, promised that Ireland would have a new “ambitious and visionary” strategy for investment in science by October — a visionary strategy may not be a credible one and policymakers need to understand the difference between invention and innovation.
Irish Politics: Scraps on tax & welfare in place of vision
Irish Politics: Whether the next general election is held in November or March 2016 will not matter as we know that the familiar campaign template of boom, bust and recovery, will be in place with scraps on tax, welfare and public spending. We also kno…
Half Ireland’s population paid public income supports in 2014
Half Ireland’s population was paid public income supports in 2014 according to data from the Department of Social Protection and the European Commission. In 2014 2.22m people including dependents were in receipt of payments from the Department of Social Protection and there were 125,000 beneficiaries of the European Common Agricultural Policy.
German exports / imports fell in August; Trade surplus rose
Both German exports and imports fell in August while the trade surplus rose according to data issued Thursday by Destatis, the federal statistics office. The plunge in exports was the worst since 2009 and reflects the poor trading situation of emerging…
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Irish tax / grants not key to success
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Policymakers and lobbyists in Ireland and elsewhere focus on tax incentives, grants and business regulations as key ingredients in promoting business startups and the number of entrepreneurs in an economy. However, this conv…
Merkel rejects limits on refugees from war entering Germany
Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has rejected any limit on migrants entering Germany, saying that it would be impractical. In a television interview Wednesday, the chancellor said she was “convinced” that the country would cope.
German and Spanish industrial production dip in August; Up in UK
German and Spanish industrial production dipped in August but it rose in teh UK boosted by a jump in oil and gas production and a moderate rebound in manufacturing.