Irish Government to Liquidate with Extreme Prejudice

Well, something interesting appears to be happening.

The Irish Government is to propose liquidating the IBRC, formerly Ned Stark's winter fund Anglo Irish Bank, with rumours that emergency legislation is to be brought before the Seanad and Dáil this evening as Governor of the Irish Central Bank presents this proposal to the ECB.

The main point of this is to cease the annual €3.1bn payment of interest on the €28bn promissory note used to bail out the world's most evil bank (excluding all the Swiss ones). A more long term bond will come into play and payments will be made back more gradually over a longer period of time.

RTE have the story here. With additional reports from Bloomberg and Reuters.

Minister Noonan is expected to make a speech in the Dáil at 9pm this evening.

This still poses several questions:

• How long has this been Plan B for the government after their initial proposal to park the interest for 15 years was shot down ?
• Were the ECB expecting this ?
• Will this have any effect on Irish bonds ?
• What kind of timeline on interest payments can we now expect ?
• What's a Magdalene laundry ?

Put on the popcorn, get out your beer hat things are gonna get interesting*.




*= by which I mean unclear, confusing and technical.

Estonian Soap Opera

Doubt you guys missed this...but still worth marking.

An opera has been written about the Twitter (sigh) feud between that the bearded Keynesian; Paul Krugman, and the always-dapper President of Estonia; Toomas Hendrik Ilves.


FT blog has the story here.



My favourite is President Ilves' sick burn at Krugman on his Nobel Prize, saying: "Guess a Nobel in trade means you can pontificate on fiscal matters...".


This story really raises some interesting issues: What are these people doing on bloody Twitter ? Has Estonian Opera run out of ideas ? Will Krugman be welcome at Talinn's world famous Christmas markets next year ? Should it be mandatory for presidents' of nations to wear bow ties ?

I wish the 16 minute opera well but for me the best economics-influenced music is across the sea from Estonia in Sweden.


PS. All Twitter/economics/opera puns are welcome. Could not think of any good ones for this article's headline.

Albert Hirschman (1915-2012)

Whilst reading the fantastic Crooked Timber blog (check it out people), I came across the sad news that Albert Hirschman had died.

He was an economist in my "must read more about them later" box and his passing has been the unfortunate reminder to investigate more closely his work, particularly that on unbalanced growth strategy.

Foreign Policy Obituary here.

Paul Krugman article on Hirschman here.

Patently Obvious: The Knowledge Economy

Are you Irish ?

Yes ? Good for you.


Are you hedging all your bets on an Irish recovery coming from exporting pharmaceuticals to the sick, bald, and impotent of the world ?

Well then, you probably shouldn't click on this link.

Agh!

Ok, it's not that bad really. Exports are still breaking records, in a good way, and certain factors (as always) have to be taken into account. What the Citi graph does highlight however, is that Ireland's reliance on pharmaceutical exports must not discount the effect the "patent cliff" will have on the market for medicines and other pharmaceutical goods in the near future.



Also, happy Tuesday everyone:Why Not Start Your Weekend on Wednesday ?

Neanderthal-nomics

I could try and explain my absence but I don't want to and, lets face it, you don't want to hear it.

What you are interested in however is fantasizing about how you can become a regular John A. Rockefeller without putting in nearly as much effort as the great captain of industry.

Luckily for you back in 1966 Marshall Sahlins discovered a way to do this...  become a Cave Man.

All is revealed in this link giving background to Sahlins' presentation, with further reading available here.

What's the deal with Optimization Theory ?

Like most people, Professor Avinash Dixit, likes to watch Seinfeld. Unlike most people, the Princeton Professor of Economics has applied an episode to option value theory, specifically Elaine evaluating if her date is "spongeworthy".

Link here.

Cool.

This is taken from Economic Inquiry and you can see in the notes that a Ricardo Guzmán is credited for the "abstract suggestion".

Now I'm off to apply Neo-Walrasian General Equilibrium Theory to the Soup Nazi......

Who is Ben Bernanke's Bank Manager ?

Happy New Year !!!


I thought this piece by John Saft of Reuters was rather cool, particularly as it had me imagining the Chairman of the Fed walking in to his bank manager's office, all sweaty and nervous, looking for some sweet sweet remortgaging.

Mr. Saft does raise some pretty thought-provoking points in his article but I really don't know if it can be so closely evaluated with the policies Mr. Bernanke advocates, this is a personal matter after all. Maybe he just had to get a rockin' new powerboat in the January Sales and this was the quickest way to do it ? At least that's what I like to think....