In Poland and Ireland the demographic timebomb is ticking away. There are ever fewer workers to support ever greater numbers of burdensome old folk. Amazingly, Ireland has found a dual solution: mass redundancies and more procreation: Irish Times: Birth Rate Highest for 110 Years Central Statistics Office: Irish Unemployment Rate Reaches 12.2% Another oddity is […]
Leszek Balcerowicz, Polish economic guru, is nothing if not dependable. No matter what the question, the answer is always to liberalise, deregulate etc. etc. I was reminded of him by today’s piece in the Irish Times by Frances Ruane of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). The subhead says it all. No really: all. […]
Three years ago I wrote briefly about high-flying academics working in Ireland who were being given extemely generous salaries in order to prevent them from emigrating from badly depressed, going-nowhere Ireland (funny no one thought of doing that in the 80s for ordinary workers). Today those bonuses are being savagely cut back, at least in […]
A delve into the archives has turned up the following job advertisement in a US periodical from 50 years ago. It says more about “human capital” and the real reasons behind encouraging people to invest in themselves than many a learned disquisition. “How a ‘crazy rumour’ got me promoted! What I overheard one morning shook […]
Yesterday Gazeta Wyborcza announced plans by the government to stop paying for students to do two degrees – one’s your limit. Today’s paper lets the cat well and truly out of the bag. There’s an interview with professor Kazimierz Stępień, chairman of the Rada Nauki (Education Council, more or less) at the Ministry for Privatising […]
Pretending that the crisis is a good thing, that is. Last weekend’s “High Heels” (Gazeta Wyborcza’s ladies’ supplement) has a subhead on page 37 (above an interview with Karolina Korwin-Piotrowska, a teevee journo) that reads “This crisis has its good sides. Perhaps we will start eating bread again and I won’t have to constantly hear […]
I’ve solved the economic crisis. After months of study and intensive thought I’ve finally cracked it. To be fair, I arrived at my earth-righting conclusion by standing on the shoulders of giants. I’ve been reading the newspapers, turning over in my mind the pronouncements of the experts, sifting through the policy initiatives of the finest […]
Alain Bihr‘s contempt for the term “human capital” is almost tangible: “As if capital, that cold monster, that accumulation of dead work, which lives only because it constantly preys on living work and exploits the labour of billions of people whose lives mean nothing to it, condemning more billions to poverty, insecurity, unemployment and socio-economic […]
Here’s a report from the Irish national broadcaster’s news site which may be beyond parody but by jingo that isn’t going to stop me. For those unfamiliar with the subject, two pieces of background information: (1) the Irish economy has hit a brick wall (2) “Tánaiste” is the Irish name for the post of deputy […]
A great deal between employers and unions is being trumpeted around about now in Poland. In return for an end to “temporary” work contracts with durations of up to twenty years, the unions have agreed to increased elasticity of working hours. Many people will be familiar with the abuse of temporary work contracts; the three […]
