Posts by Paul Sweeney

paul-sweeney

Paul Sweeney     @paulsweeneyman

Paul Sweeney is former Chief Economist of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. He was a President of the Statistical and Social Enquiry Society of Ireland, former member of the Economic Committee of the ETUC, a member of the National Competitiveness Council of Ireland, the National Statistics Board, the ESB, TUAC, (advisor to OECD) and several other bodies. He has written three books on the Irish economy and two on public enterprise, including The Celtic Tiger; Ireland’s Economic Miracle Explained and Selling Out: Privatisation in Ireland, chapters in other books and many articles on economics.


The Entrepreneurial Irish State

Paul Sweeney 31/01/2019

Perhaps the most sucessful example of the entrepreneurial state in Ireland is IDA Ireland. It is a state agency which has been incredibley successful …

Privatisation Pendulum Swings Back.

Paul Sweeney 20/12/2018

In my last blog in November, we saw that privatisation is being reversed in the UK, the original home of the Thatcher ideology of “rolling back the …

Finally, the Privatisation Pendulum Swings Back.

Paul Sweeney 09/11/2018

Trends in Economics Trends in economics swing one way and then back. The privatisation trend that begun in the 1980s in the UK is finally swinging …

Will the Rainy Day Fund Become Another Corporate Bailout?

Paul Sweeney 03/09/2018

The last National Pension Reserve Fund was raided & most of it was squandered. Ireland had a Sovereign Wealth Fund – 1% of GNP plus profits …

The Irish Entrepreneurial State

Paul Sweeney 27/06/2018

In the last blog I set out how Aer Lingus, an entrepreneurial Irish state company, grew into a major company with over 14,000 employees in several …

The Irish Entrepreneurial State

Paul Sweeney 11/06/2018

In my last blog I looked at the Wild Atlantic Way as a good example of entrepreneurial thinking by public employees of the Irish state. Mariana …

An Irish Entrepreneurial State’s Success

Paul Sweeney 25/04/2018

In a recent blog, we saw how economist Mariana Mazzucato demonstrated that it was not the hugely profitable and tax-avoiding tech firms which were …

Corporates out of control

Paul Sweeney 18/04/2018

The revelation that the chairman of the Independent News Group suggested in 2016 that Ireland’s largest media group should be run in the interests …

Can we learn from the US? DARPA - Public Entrepreneurship in practice?

Paul Sweeney 10/04/2018

We Europeans generally feel superior to Americans, particularly on policies in healthcare, welfare, and the organisation of society. But perhaps …

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