Archive for the ‘Income and poverty’ Category

Irish economy in crisis

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

It's not wholly surprising, but it seems possible that the meteoric rise of the Celtic Tiger could very soon be eclipsed by the current free-fall of the Irish economy. Following on from news that the economy fell into recession in the second quarter of 2008 (with two consecutive quarters of declining ...

Blogging while eating…

Monday, August 11th, 2008

I'm battling yet another software melt-down - just after fixing the wifi (by reinstalling everything), my MacBook has copied my Mini in refusing to open applications like Word, and showing a blank desktop (though the files are actually still on the system, the icons just aren't showing on screen). Time ...

Irish national pay talks break down

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Talks on a new national social partnership agreement - which includes agreement on pay in public and private workplaces - have broken down in Ireland. Ireland has had centralized agreements covering pay and other issues since the late 1980s. These have ensured a voice for unions (and employers) in setting ...

Visiting New Orleans

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Approximately 225,000 people left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina flooded most city neighborhoods in August 2005. A sizeable number came from the 9th ward. Some 1800 people died during the floods; later, hundreds more succumbed to stress-related ailments. [Saul Landau] My parents visited the US recently, and we took the opportunity ...

Activism compendium

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

A number of items today, from a range of sources. First, the picture to the left is of Labour TD Joe Costello, who for the last 5 years has run a weekly protest outside the Mater hospital, calling for better healthcare. Second, potentially good news for grad employees in private universities in ...

A Critical Ear – latest edition

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

This week's show is now online. It lasts just around an hour, and features Bob Naiman and myself discussing Pakistan, Iran, and the success of Brazil's AIDS drugs policy. Locally we discuss SEIU's possible strike and the growing support from the campus community, and the CCHCC protest about the exclusion ...

The impact of a declining dollar

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

As the dollar has continued to drop in value against the euro, I've predicted (with some trepidation) that it would be as low as $1.50 to the euro by the time I return to Ireland for Christmas. I must admit that I thought I was being somewhat pessimistic, but it ...

Immokalee Workers win global anti-slavery award

Monday, November 12th, 2007

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers are doing important work across a range of areas. I first came across them in connection with their founding of WCIW, an LPFM station serving farm-workers in Florida.They are also well-known for their work to gain extra income for workers through putting pressure on companies ...

Happy Labour Day weekend?

Friday, August 31st, 2007

I'm TAing for Bob McChesney's political economy class this semester, and the first book we're reading is Dean Baker's recent text "The United States since 1980" - it's part of a series focusing on different countries over that period. It's a fascinating opportunity to refresh the finer points (in a ...

Richest two percent own half of world’s wealth

Thursday, December 7th, 2006

The World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University has a new report on wealth distribution around the world. An interesting undertaking, and some interesting conclusions for those, like me, who like to track such things:In this paper we show, first, that there are very large intra-country differences ...