Michael Taft

Over the last 5 years, the nuclear-armed countries spent over $400 billion on their nuclear arsenals. For half that amount we could end global hunger. The EU should take the global lead and declare Europe to be a nuclear-weapon-free zone. Source: ICAN

Thanks for that.

Huge win for workers!🥳

Do you have a link for that?

Ireland has the fewest number of labour inspectors in the EU, bar Malta. A weak and under-resourced labour inspectorate puts employees at risk, allows low-road employers to undermine good businesses, and weakens consumer safety. Everyone loses. Source: ILO

The Government justifies a number of policies – postponing the Living Wage, cutting VAT – on the basis that small businesses are under pressure. Yet the Government publishes survey data showing SME profitability has never been higher. So what's going on? tinyurl.com/3zrcrjhk

Fiscal policy is in danger of repeating the past. A large economic deficit subsidised by a shrinking pool of money. If tariffs hit growth, the Government will squeeze spending, reducing growth further. Been there, done that, bought the austerity t-shirt. tinyurl.com/2uyy8347

Fiscal policy is in danger of repeating the past. A large economic deficit subsidised by a shrinking pool of money. If tariffs hit growth, the Government will squeeze spending, reducing growth further. Been there, done that, bought the austerity t-shirt: tinyurl.com/2uyy8347

Ireland will disporportionately suffer from the 15% tariff. Over a quarter of all Irish goods exports go to the US. The EU average is 8%. How is this a good deal for Ireland or the EU?

What do Ireland’s best paid chief executives earn? Top executives’ average pay package rose by 31 per cent to €4.36m last year

Average CEO pay in large Irish publicly quoted companies rose by 31%. Average employee wage rose by approximately 4%. Increase in CEO pay rose nearly 8 times faster. This should be a political issue.

What do Ireland’s best paid chief executives earn?

www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

394. New Apartment Standards – The 21st Century Tenements with Orla Hegarty Reboot Republic - Rory Hearne by Tortoise Shack Media · Episode

🎧 New Apartment Standards the 20th Century Tenements

My conversation with Rory Hearne on Reboot Republic podcast (no paywall) www.patreon.com/posts/patron...

Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4DZe...
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/r...

I am writing a policy pamphlet. Here are all the ways to demonstrate I don't really have a policy answer, that I need to avoid:

a. You call for a "national conversation or debate"
b. You suggest that what is needed is “a change in culture”
1/

We're Not Spending Enough Voices are growing louder. Government spending is getting out of control: ‘surging public spending’, ‘rising faster than planned’, ‘fiscal incontinence’; and the killer punch: public spending has doub...

We’re being told public spending is getting out of control. But Ireland is a low spender. We’d have to increase public expenditure by up to €15 billion just to reach EU averages. We need to significantly increase spending – and the revenue to pay for it. tinyurl.com/bdfpetw9

We're Not Spending Enough Voices are growing louder. Government spending is getting out of control: ‘surging public spending’, ‘rising faster than planned’, ‘fiscal incontinence’; and the killer punch: public spending has doub...

We’re being told public spending is getting out of control. But Ireland is a low spender. We’d have to increase public expenditure by up to €15 billion just to reach EU averages. We need to significantly increase spending – and the revenue to pay for it. tinyurl.com/bdfpetw9

Reducing working time through #CollectiveBargaining is a powerful tool to tackle burnout, improve work-life balance, and address labour market challenges – all without reducing pay or productivity.

Our new study analyses 119 collective bargaining agreements.

➡️ www.etuc.org/en/pressrele...

Anti-scab bill becomes law but vulnerabilities remain After years of lobbying and public pressure from the labour movement, anti-scab legislation has finally come into effect at the federal level.

CANADA: Anti-scab bill becomes law but vulnerabilities remain rabble.ca/labour/anti-...

Politics vs Econ101 Once upon a time, the phrase "classical liberal" meant something other than "racist crank". In that idyllic era, those liberals loved to point out how their opponents were failing to understand Econ10...

Blogged: eight ways in which politicians often ignore basic economics: stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

Have now been released, thanks again for all the support. Others from #GlobalMarchToGaza still detained.

Will comment further when I've left Egypt.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

Blogged: whether we should be politically engaged in the UK is a genuine dilemma - one perhaps best solved by devising new forms of political activity: stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

Today is 'No Kings Day' in America. Demonstrations in over 2,000 cities against the authoritarianism of Trump's rule are taking place. Solidarity with all those marching in the US and around the world for democracy and the rule of law.

Blogged: why liberal centrists should mourn the decline of the left, because it led to illiberalism & irrationality: stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

Profit shifting. Tax avoidance. 0% corporate tax paid. Excellent investigation into Ireland's tax mirage and multinational accounting practices from the @businesspost.bsky.social Still, don't ever say that Ireland is a tax haven.

Considerable opposition to the government's proposed postponement of living wage and additional sick pay entitlements.

Military expenditure among the combined EU countries is nearly three times that of Russia. So why are we being frog-marched into ramping up military expenditure at the expense of social programmes? Source: SIPRI Military Expenditure Database

Greenpeace ordered to pay hundreds of millions in damages to oil firm Greenpeace has warned it could be forced into bankruptcy if it is ordered to pay around $300m to Energy Transfer.

How it ends.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Greenpeace must pay hundreds of millions over Dakota pipeline protests, says jury Non-profit said in statement lawsuits like this aimed at ‘destroying the right to peaceful protest’

Fossil fuel companies should be forced to pay the public trillions in damages for the costs of their planetary arson. Instead they are trying to shut down one of the most important and storied environmental groups in the world. It's shameless - and it's not over. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

War may be hell but it’s boomtime for shareholders. There’s been a significant increase in the share price of major arms manufacturers since the beginning of the year. In some cases, the share price has more than doubled.

Difficult to see how one can view Trump’s hosting of McGregor in the White House, on St Patrick's Day, as anything other than a deliberate and calculated affront to Ireland by the US president.

Breaking from our American Dependency Model Fair dues to the Taoiseach – escaping the White House badger pit without getting mauled. This still leaves the outstanding question: is our over-reliance on US multi-national investment in the long-te...

Ireland has an unhealthy over-reliance on US multi-national investment. We need to spread our foreign investment risk and increase domestic investment. Over the long-term we need to break from our American dependency model. Or be prepared to be broken: tinyurl.com/mshnbcsh

Breaking from our American Dependency Model Fair dues to the Taoiseach – escaping the White House badger pit without getting mauled. This still leaves the outstanding question: is our over-reliance on US multi-national investment in the long-te...

Ireland has an unhealthy over-reliance on US multi-national investment. We need to spread our foreign investment risk and increase domestic investment. Over the long-term we need to break from our American dependency model. Or be prepared to be broken. tinyurl.com/mshnbcsh