John Walsh | Business Post

John Walsh

johnwalsh

John Walsh: Fine Gael misreads mood of electorate, while Sinn Féin waits in the wings

With its focus on tax cuts, Fine Gael looks like it is about to make the same mistake for the third consecutive election

John Walsh: Government should prioritise sustainable policies over auction politics in budget

Fiscal watchdog warns against overspending as election looms

John Walsh: Sordid streets of San Francisco a grim warning of what could happen to Dublin

Stripe co-founder John Collison’s warning about the state of the planning system here should be heeded as the root of the California city’s problems with soaring homelessness and crime rates is instructive for Dublin

John Walsh: GDP is out of date – it’s time we found another way to measure economic growth

The universal metric is inherently gender biased and fails to take in other factors such as the environment and societal issues

John Walsh: Banks put their foot in it once again with interest rates misstep

Reaping record-breaking profits while failing to pass on deposit rate rises was never going to play well to the gallery

John Walsh: Future of Irish stock exchange is rosier than it would appear despite major departures

Even as we debate the future of the Irish stock exchange, we should keep our eye on what Brussels is planning

John Walsh: Housing crisis, migrant influx and scandal at RTÉ could erode our political centre

Ireland remains a stable country, but it is not immune to destabilising factors facing other countries – and a consequent drift to the far right

John Walsh: Irish savers are the big losers as banking market contraction continues

Reluctant to erode profitability, the banks are showing no appetite to increase deposit rates

John Walsh: Our corporate tax revenues are safe for now, but that won’t be the case forever

The fiscal watchdog has warned the government against repeating the mistakes of the past – but global legislative actions could also cause problems for our economy

John Walsh: We need an ‘IDA for housing’ to source building funds overseas

Institutional investors have been depicted as vulture funds but the truth is an international solution is necessary as the state cannot fund the entire housing sector by itself

John Walsh: Economy is as dependent now on corporate taxes as it was on property taxes prior to 2008

Any budget giveaway will present huge risks to the economy, yet fiscal restraint will be unpopular for the government going into the next election

John Walsh: Our housing provision system is at breaking point and needs a radical overhaul

Ibec’s idea to use rising tax revenues for a national infrastructure fund makes sense, but the housing crisis shows that the way we spend the money is as important as putting it aside

John Walsh: Sinn Féin’s hardline Eurosceptic approach to the EU is likely to soften

With its goal of Irish unity, a Sinn Féin government would need a good relationship with Brussels and the main EU power brokers – so if it continues to pursue a Eurocritical agenda, goodwill at an EU level will dry up

John Walsh: Britain’s unedifying Brexit blunder should serve as a warning to us all

With resistance from unionists likely to cause disruption and instability, thorough dialogue and planning are needed before any referendum on Irish unity can take place

John Walsh: The government won’t do it, but approved housing bodies should be scrapped

These state bodies are so unreliable that developers can’t get funding on the back of a contract with one, and in any case low to middle-income earners can’t get a mortgage

John Walsh: Sinn Féin is now closer to Leo’s Fine Gael and Micheál’s Fianna Fáil than its 2011 self

As the country’s most populist party, Sinn Féin has realised the path to power lies not on the hard left where it used to stand but in the centre ground

John Walsh: Time is right for state to let go of its bank holdings

Funded wholly by deposits, Irish banks are insulated from the sharp rise in the cost of funding that has put many US and EU banks at risk

Public Spending

John Walsh: There is a strong whiff of 2007 about all of this, but there’s reason to hope

The government might be well advised to consider the German system, where a strict monitoring process ensures all spending represents value for money

Artificial Intelligence

John Walsh: We have to prepare ourselves for the best and the worst that AI could bring

The debate is still raging on whether the dangers outweigh the opportunities inherent in developing artificial intelligence. But as the EU prepares to pass an act regulating the burgeoning sector, Ireland needs to plan ahead, or regret it

John Walsh: FDI has proven to be a winning strategy for us but it is not without risk

Just ten multinationals contribute 60 per cent of corporation tax and while the expected budget surplus of €10bn is to be welcomed, there is a real danger of overheating in the economy