Posts by 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.
More jobs, but a growing gap between good and bad jobs
Paul Sweeney 03/09/2015
Paul Sweeney: An important EU institution, which is based in in South Dublin and does valuable work, is Eurofound. It has just released “The …
What do the OECD health statistics tell us about Ireland?
Paul Sweeney 20/07/2015
Paul Sweeney: The OECD has recently published its “Health at a Glance: Europe 2014”. This is very useful even though I am critical of this …
No inflation due to low wage rises
Paul Sweeney 22/06/2015
Paul Sweeney: There has been no rise in overall prices in seven years! In fact, prices today are a little lower than they were at the peak - which …
Good News on Jobs
Paul Sweeney 27/05/2015
Paul Sweeney: There is good news on the jobs front. But we should never have had such a collapse in the economy and jobs. The job of economists and …
Employers' Social Contributions in Ireland
Paul Sweeney 19/05/2015
Paul Sweeney: Here on Progressive Economy, we have been examining the evidence for tax reform in recent months. In my last Blog I looked at …
The Danger of the Share-Buyback Epidemic
Paul Sweeney 30/04/2015
Paul Sweeney: The news that US companies will buy back over one Trillion dollars – that is $1,000,000,000,000 - worth of their own shares in 2015 …
More on Income Taxes and Social Charges – Proposals for Reform
Paul Sweeney 22/04/2015
Paul Sweeney: According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emanual Saez “The job of economists should be to make a top rate tax level of 80% at least …
Planning permissions show how little we've learnt
Paul Sweeney 30/03/2015
Paul Sweeney: This Infographic on planning permissions, published by the CSO last week, tells a lot about the Irish economy and Irish people.
The Top Income Tax is at its Lowest Rate
Paul Sweeney 23/03/2015
Paul Sweeney: This year, Ireland’s top tax is at its lowest rate for many years. Yet inequality is now recognised as the biggest economic challenge …
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Paul Sweeney
Paul Sweeney is former Chief Economist of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. He was a …
Shana Cohen
Dr. Shana Cohen is the Director of TASC. She studied at Princeton University and at the …
Vic Duggan
Vic Duggan is an independent consultant, economist and public policy specialist catering …