Cliff Taylor

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Cliff Taylor

There is a crisis of accountability at the top of the Irish public service. It resembles a Kafka-esque nightmare of rules, processes and committees, where the focus is on ensuring “strategies” are in place and all the boxes are ticked, rather than actually getting things done. Politicians try to fix things, not by ensuring people do their jobs, but by putting in place workarounds – new bodies, committees and agencies to try to make progress. Housing is the ultimate example.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Cliff Taylor

Irish people are Europe’s champion savers. Irish savings accounts were supercharged during Covid-19, growing even faster than those elsewhere in the EU. And since the Covid lockdowns ended, while savings growth has fallen back it is still – in terms of money put into bank accounts – ahead of its pre-Covid level. By contrast, in many other countries the excess bank savings built up during Covid have been run down. 1.

2 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Cliff Taylor

Whatever you do, don’t call it “downsizing”. This seemingly harmless word is now part of the generational culture wars. Its very mention has listeners to radio shows picking up their phones and newspaper letter writers grabbing their iPads. It has, somehow, taken on resonance of people being “forced” out of their homes and marched off to a grim bungalow miles away or, worse, whisper it quietly, an apartment.

2 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Cliff Taylor

How on earth are investors meant to manage in the world where stock markets – at least in the short term – are driven not by the fundamentals of earnings and the economic outlook but by the latest outpouring on Truth Social from Donald Trump? Markets rose this week after Trump moved to allay fears that he would seek the dismissal of Federal Reserve Board chair Jay Powell and also said that he expected tariffs on China would “come down substantially” from their current stratospheric levels.

3 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Cliff Taylor

The visit of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni to the White House this week led to optimistic noises about a trade deal between the European Union and the United States. But whatever happens over the next 90 days, don’t expect this all to go away easily. And watch out as tensions spread beyond trade in goods to the world of the big digital service companies such as Meta, Google and X, which are key players in Ireland’s economy.