Tom McDonnell: I believe I was slightly taken out of context in the Irish Times today.
I was quoted as saying
“...austerity measures would not restore growth”, which is fine,
and
“He urged the Government to ramp up public investment in a manner that should “echo Roosevelt’s New Deal policies . . . and the Marshall Plan policies which engendered the recovery of Western Europe in the wake of the Second World War”.
Just to clarify that the Marshall Plan comments were meant in the context of a European wide programme of investment as a countervailing force to the austerity measures being undertaken domestically in the periphery. I was not claiming the Irish Government had access to the resources to “ramp up” investment.
Centralising monetary policy, while keeping the other instruments of economic policy in member hands, is incoherent.
In the longer-term the Euro zone members (principally Germany) will have to decide between fiscal federalism and Euro zone break-up.
The status quo cannot hold.
6 comments:
Are the papers/presentations at this event available for download?
Hi Paul - presentations and videos will be uploaded to the TASC website (www.tascnet.ie) later this week.
The whole article is out of context. There were a bevvy of ideas presented and discussed not just "Ireland must leave the Eurozone". Those comments were made almost in abstract as a response to the ECB not giving us money in the way central banks should.
Dan O'Brien wasn't even there!
For those with an interest in the future of the 'progressive-left' I suggest that the following collection of writings should be essential reading:
http://www.policy-network.net/publications/4001/Priorities-for-a-new-political-economy-Memos-to-the-left
And for any of those on this board who might view me as a raving, swivel-eyed Neocon, I would recommend in particular the short essay by Colin Crouch (pp 19-24), as it probably comes closest to describing my position.
Many thanks for the link Paul. I will be certain to give these writings a read over the weekend.
Thank you, Tom. It's linked to a conference today and tommorow in Oslo:
http://www.policy-network.net/uploads/media/154/7450.pdf
Not sure if anyone from this board is attending - or from the TUs or Labour. Would be surprised if there weren't some Irish participation. I got a heads-up about it very early this morning and I've gone through the collection of essays very quickly. The richness, depth and breadth of the thinking is really energising.
Perhaps someone here might think it worthwhile opening a thread on this at some point?
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