Good News on the Economy from Europe but a Warning?

Paul Sweeney: There is some good news on the Irish economy from Eurostat. But hidden in the text is a warning to another member state, Luxembourg, that may threaten us in the next quarter, if the European statistical police, based in Luxembourg, find out how lavish and spendthrift the government has been, and intends to continue to be, with certain public assets.

Can Special Purpose Vehicles help alleviate the Housing Crisis?

Tom Healy: A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is a technical term that refers to a wide variety of arrangements where a financial entity is established for a ‘special purpose’ as the title suggests.  The National Asset Management Agency is a type of SPV set up to buy distressed assets from bust banks and seek to work off these loans over time and recoup some of the loss for the state.  In this case, the vehicle established is said to be ‘off the books’ (of the state.