• INBS and the ECB Today?s story about INBS issuing ?4 billion in government-guaranteed debt effectively to itself (i.e. issuing it, then keeping it on the balance sheet to use for repo with the ECB) seems a bit strange. Indeed, normally the ECB doesn?t allow this kind of thing.  Page 39 of its eligible collateral documentation contains the following guideline: Irrespective [...]..more

• Business and Finance Interview with Anglo Management Business and Finance have an interview with Anglo CEO and CFO, Mike Anysley and Maarten van Eden. ..more

• The Guarantee Extension Decision Much of the reporting of yesterday?s guarantee decision (DoF press release here, explanatory notes here) seems to be a bit confused. Most of the coverage has focused on something called ?the guarantee?. However, there are in fact two separate state guarantee schemes. The original is the Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Act 2008 or CIFS, which was [...]..more

• New university rankings The latest QS university rankings are out. The rules have changed, so comparisons to last year are nonsense. Ireland has three universities in the Top 200: TCD (52), UCD (114) and UCC (184). The others require a bit of searching: UCG (232), DCU (330), DIT (395), Maynooth (401-450), UL (451-500). It this good or bad? I [...]..more

• Ten Year Bond Spread at New High A bad day in the sovereign bond market. Irish ten-year bond yields are up about 25 basis points, hovering at about six percent. Spreads over German equivalents are at about  370 basis points, well above the levels that prevailed in May prior to the announcement of the EU-IMF bailout fund. Just reporting it, so don’t shoot [...]..more

• Like JFK?s mom told David Frost: these women politicians can?t have it all A book I started reading on holidays was the wonderfully-gossipy ‘The Kennedy Women’ by Laurence Leamer, who quotes David Frost asking the Kennedy matriarch Rose (JFK’s mom): ?Your sons have gone into politics, but you wouldn’t particularly urge your daughters to go into politics?? ?Well I think their first duty is to their family,? Rose replied, [...]..more

• Sporting Antidote to Gloom and Doom Your humble scribe was fortunate to be among the 82,000 attendance at today’s thrilling All-Ireland Hurling Final where Tipperary overcame Kilkenny despite the latter’s hopes of making it five Liam McCarthy titles in a row. It was a refreshing break from all the gloom and doom over the economy, Anglo-Irish Bank, etc., etc. Croke Park really [...]..more

• Tony Blair and his Book Back in the swing this week. Didn’t miss much, news-wise, in my time off.  The big story last week was Tony Blair and his visit to Dublin to promote his autobiography. Haven’t read the whole thing but the Northern Ireland chapter has an astonishing howler, in that he describes the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings as [...]..more

• Our cruellest month On this week, seven years ago, I sat down for the first time at a desk in an office in Leinster House, to begin a new journalistic journey – that of a political correspondent. Before I started, I thought the middle of August would be a good time to start. It was quiet. I’d have a [...]..more

• Too Busy to Blog Too busy to blog about Ivor Callely: if you want to read what Mary Minihan and myself have been writing in the paper about him, click here ..more

• Double Whammy Price Shock: Sept electricity price review on top of Oct levy hike Image by Michael Foley Photography via Flickr Fine Gael Communications & Energy Spokesperson, Leo Varadkar TD, today (Monday) warned that electricity bills face a double whammy as a separate price review is due in September on top of the ?156 million levy due to be imposed in October to subsidise peat and renewable energy generators.   “People are [...]..more

• Electricity price hike in store as ?156m levy hits must be halted by Minister Ryan Image via Wikipedia Shock for consumers and business. Low paid and elderly will be hit hard.   Fine Gael Communications & Energy Spokesperson, Leo Varadkar TD, today (Sunday) said a hike in electricity prices in October will horrify consumers and businesses and hit the low paid and the elderly particularly hard.  Deputy Varadkar has called on Minister Ryan [...]..more

• Return air ticket to Glenties cost me ?55 yet Min. Dempsey spends ?7,890 an hour on Govt. Jet Image via Wikipedia It?s simple: the Minister and his colleagues are out of touch   It speaks volumes for the disdain with which the Government views the taxpayer that a Minister sees fit to splurge thousands of Euro of public money by using both the Government Jet and his Ministerial vehicle to attend the McGill Summer school, according [...]..more

• Varadkar welcomes reversal of cuts imposed on Daughters of Charity services for the intellectually disabled in Dublin Fine Gael TD for Dublin West, Leo Varadkar has welcomed an agreement between the HSE and the Daughters of Charity Service (DOCS) which will allow for the reinstatement of most of the respite and other services for the intellectually disabled that were closed last month.  This follows a vigorous campaign against the cuts led by [...]..more

• Varadkar challenges Lenihan to say whether Metro West is going ahead Image via Wikipedia Fine Gael TD for Dublin West, Leo Varadkar has called on the Minister for Finance to ?come clean? on METRO WEST and to say whether or not it will be built and when.  Metro West will run through the western suburbs of Dublin linking Blanchardtown, Liffey Valley and Tallaght.  It will interchange with [...]..more