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Priorities, Bertie!
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The FTSE is off 269 points - as a result of the fears of the knock-on effects of the Wall Street fall-out.
Jobs are being lost, with disagreeable frequency, in International Companies - and relocated in low wage-cost countries, sheltered from the interference of greedy trade unions and over regulation.
And what is Bertie doing?
Nothing; niente; nada; zero; zilch; diddly-squat - take your pick.
They all amount to apathy.
He bangs on about progress in the North - the responsibility of the UK; reduction of CO emissions - following on belated initiatives in the UK and other European countries.
A year ago, I forecast this downturn (for 2008 at the latest) - all on the basis of events in the US and the rise in interest rates. At the time no one responded, except Cian, who asked why I felt that the “tipping point” had arrived.
We can post blogs forever and bemoan the incompetence of Fianna Fail Ministers; the greed of the trade unions; the bloated, over-paid civil service and Martin Cullen.
Yet it is the voters of Ireland who are going to suffer the inaction of Bertie Ahern and his mistaken priorities - keeping his Drumcondra constituents sweet & on side; getting Fianna Fail back into power - to continue the mismanagement - with any other party that will get him back in.
And the Opposition are equally silent.
If he was serious about reducing CO emissions, cancel the provisional driving licenses in issue; tax the gas guzzlers off the roads; switch to nuclear energy.
But do something - other than posing for the cameras - with his €450 make-over.
Better still, resign - join his friends in the socialist movement and become a trade union negotiator.
And let someone, with professional ability, take over.
Er. Has he ever had priorities?
in 1997 he just won the economic equivalent of musical chairs. He was in charge when the music stopped.
The FTSE is now off 321 and falling; Two more Multi-Nationals have gone down the tubes.
And where is the darlin’ lad, with his €450 haircut?
As usual - anywhere, except where he should be.
This time it’s America (again), via the Gulf Stream at €5,000 an hour, schmoozing among fellow nationalists & republicans - including Niall O’Dowd (courtesy RTE), the IRA’s bestest buddy.
Priorities. my arse!
This man lives in a parallel universe.
If only FF had a tent at Cheltenham, he could have had an acceptable alternative.
Maybe next year it will head his priorities.
SoS,
The fact that you’re apparently quoting today’s fall in the ISEQ index and calling it the FTSE seems to indicate where you’re at, namely all over the place. It’s high time some of the froth was skimmed off the index.
Fool,
I stand corrected - it was a reference to the ISEQ.
The Footsie is not as exposed to the US as we are, with our enormous dependency on US and other Multi-Nationals.
However, my point was not a social one - about froth for investors - it was an indicator that we are in potential trouble if the government fails to take immediate action to control the cost base of Irish industry and restore competitiveness.
That requires an active, competent, hands-on Chief Executive - taking decisions on corrective measures.
Not a dilettante, with pancake make-up, farting about abroad, mouthing platitudes, written by spin-doctors.
The movements in the stock markets are caused by professionals taking positions to hedge against losses.
It might be borne in mind, when Fool talks about “froth”, that the ISEQ represents a substantial percentage of the underlying value of the Investments of Pension Funds.
It also includes the funds of the trade unions, which pay the bloated wages of Comrades Begg: Halpenny & O’Connor, just to mention the names of the beards & sandals who dominate the screen of RTE TV.
If public companies fail to make profits and declare dividends, pension & other funds will bear the brunt of the fall in the stock market value of their quoted shares.
Ponder, Fool - profit may be a dirty word in the lexicon of socialists, but consider a situation where losses have occurred.
Consider the number of Multi National companies that can’t continue against the escalating cost base in Bertie’s socialist Ireland.
This man reads from prepared papers on global warming and climate change, but when have you heard him mention the possibility of an investment in a sea-water desalination plant?
SOS,
Your forthright capitulation has kicked the stool out from under me. Now I’ll try to read the rest of your response.