Stephen Kinsella on Economics
Why should US or Indian or Chinese monetary policy concern Ireland? So much of what we call ‘industrial policy’ here is really policy for US-based multinationals. Changes to the banking system in the US, and more importantly business conditions there, can signal either good or bad times for us.
Central bankers typically disappoint their political masters. Since the 1980s, most central banks around the world have in theory been ‘independent’, that is, free of direct, day-to-day control by politicians. Of course, the reality is far from that. Still, Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell annoyed Donald Trump last week when he increased interest rates for a third time this year, and for the eighth time since December 2015. Nobody was surprised by this ...
