Who are the Best / Most Interesting "Alternative" Economists in Ireland ?

[C. Flower]

We have more economists here than fleas on my dog. But they seem to be in two categories - the majority are thorough establishment people - they may grumble about the bond payments, but they don't question the system.

There is a minority who favour stimulus over austerity, but they also accept without question that the present system can and should be made to work.

Any suggestions for good, or interesting, "alternative" economists in Ireland ?

Red, Green or other ?

[gfmurphy101]

Perhaps the simplist answer is even if we had would they get to be "seen and heard",but on the subject of our bright spark economists the link below shows how they rate on the world scale http://www.irisheconomy.ie/index.php/tag/rankings/

As can be seen in world terms economic depts at Irish Uni's are to put it mildly 'crap'
But when all our 'celebrity economists' are spending their time scrambling to get television appearances and nixers writing for newspapers instead of doing what real economists do, what does one expect!
If there were university league tables for writing for the IT or the SINDO, or appearing on the #vinb or #rtefl TV shows or even a special award for using twitter I'd say all our boys would be right at the top!
Lets face we don't have economists, we have right wing mouthpieces at the beck and call of the 1% ! As long as we have powerful people pulling the strings any decent economist will never get the 'airtime'

[Dr. FIVE]

Tend to cherrypick.
A lot of them are very good at deconstructing the govt guff but almost to a wo/man quick to show they would have children back up chimneys if they got the chance.

[Dr. FIVE]

Though to answer your question Michael Taft & Tom Healy are always worth a read

[TotalMayhem]

Economists, "alternative" or otherwise, are charlatans. Why would we want to bore ourselves with with a discussion about their "qualities"?

[C. Flower]

Economists, "alternative" or otherwise, are charlatans. Why would we want to bore ourselves with with a discussion about their "qualities"?

I'm interested to see if there is anyone questioning the orthodoxy.

"No growth" models.

Abolition of money.

That kind of thing.

[Baron von Biffo]

I'm interested to see if there is anyone questioning the orthodoxy.

"No growth" models.

Abolition of money.

That kind of thing.

Quite a few of them seem to support the abolition of money from the pockets of workers and welfare recipients.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Ned O'Keeffe? He predicted a military coup there some 18months ago. Last heard of in a straw filled barn in Rathcormac clutching a suitcase full of his Oireachtas mobile 'phone collection and snuggled up to his favourite sow while scanning anxiously the horizon with the binoculars his Da sold him on his deathbed.

G'man Ned.

[C. Flower]

Apart from Michael Taft and Tom Healy, no names then ?
Nobody on the rev Left ?

[Apjp]

Apart from Michael Taft and Tom Healy, no names then ?
Nobody on the rev Left ?

I know one such left wing economist in DIT, no point naming him as he's not well known but when I last spoke to him 2 years back, he favoured staying in the euro. He seems to think Eu wide uprising is possible. Might suit what I would consider to be your view that socialism, or some sort of radical social upheaval, has to come on an international scale.

As someone doing a thesis on economic sovereignty and EU federalism, I would personally think that Ireland cannot be applied to the same EU norms in other PIIIGS countries due to our unique colonial history which means we have more in common with Algeria than Portugal or Greece. There is another economist in my course, called John Hogan who thinks along those lines, that Ireland is a special case because of what he calls the legacy of colonialism. Considering the unique passive and incredibly servile reaction of the populace here to the abuse we have been served off of successive governments and the troika, compared to petrol bombs in Greece, strikes in Lisbon, and a revolution in Iceland, I would be inclined to agree with him.