The Other Hand

'Dr Strangelove' was a 1960s movie that satirised the cold war. It explored 'Mutually Assured Destruction' and was a riff, in a way, on 'game theory'. A number of characters have emerged that echo Strangelove. The US economy continues to power ahead, not least in terms of almost unbelievable job creation. Higher interest rates were supposed to cool the economy, destroy jobs and therefore lower inf...

Sleepwalking to war? Not so much! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The super soaraway US economy and stock market Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's coming up the 75th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell's 1984. We discuss with professor Shane O'Mara the various psychological insights of Orwell and how they endure and resonate to the present day. We don't like chaos and detest change. When our beliefs don't cost us anything - and keep us on good terms with fellow group members - we don't care about the facts. Winston Smith's t...

'The Bitter lessons of Brexit'. We all fervently wish that Brexit has gone away. It hasn't. It's more like a slow moving chronic disease but it is sill an infection for the economy and the UK at large. It's going to stay that way. Was Darwin wrong? Could evolution go into reverse? Evidence of Homo Sapiens losing their backbone are everywhere, especially in Washington DC. De Santis demonises Trump...

Trump is ahead in he polls and could be the next leader of the free world. He has promised to be a 'dictator for a day' Will it be the catastrophe that most seem to expect? Is everything he says wrong? Are liberals the ones who have created the conditions for the global march of right-wing populism? Immigration is the big controversy everywhere. Nobody is debating it rationally. We give it a try....

Latest trade data for Ireland suggest exports are struggling - for the first prolonged period in quite a while. That points to a world trade slowdown - and generalised economic weakness everywhere (apart from the US). Irish GDP could well shrink in 2024 if this continues - for the second year in a row. Inflation surprising to the upside is now a more-or-less global phenomenon after much bigger tha...

Low or no economic growth is a bigger problem than most people realise. What we don't know about growth might surprise you. Too many country's are losing interest in growth. Not Ireland - yet. But unless growth is nurtured it will be quick to disappear. And there are plenty of warning signs on the horizon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

China wants Taiwan on the same terms that it took Hong Kong. 'One country two systems'. A bargain that Xi Jingping failed to honour. No wonder most Taiwanese are suspicious. Taiwan's upcoming Presidential election merits close attention. There probably isn't a 'good' outcome. Just ones that hasten or defer a potential confrontation. Latest inflation data, for end 2023, has generally disappointed....

How many centrist political parties does Ireland need? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another year of forecasts, mostly wrong. And another season for making forecasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over 100 countries will have elections of one kind or another during 2024. Some analysts think that will be the largest number in history. A lot of those elections could be very consequential. We start the year with Taiwanese elections - the outcome could well provoke China, widely thought to be preparing for a possible war by the end of the decade. We end with the possible return of Trump. How ba...

The IDA's annual report on companies supported by them shows tech job losses. This is consistent with Ireland's external trade data - although the latter remains heavily distorted by post-pandemic return to normal for pharmaceutical exports. Three central banks met this week. All left interest rates unchanged but delivered very different messages. Members of the Federal Reserve's rate setting comm...

Jim returns from Canada and stresses the scope for improved economic & business ties with Ireland. Inflation is coming down but the world's central banks are poised to to do battle with the markets and disabuse them of their assumptions about rapid interest rate cuts next year. Falling interest rate expectations have helped some mortgage rates to ease, especially in the US and UK. House prices...

In conversation with professor Shane O'Mara of Trinity College Dublin. Novo Nordisk has become Europe's largest, most valuable, company on the back of some new weight-loss drugs. Is the hype justified? It's early days but the preliminary evidence is an emphatic yes! There are familiar caveats: potential side effects and cost. But these drugs do seem to work. And not just for weight loss - this is...

Jim shares his impressions of the state of Irish-Canada relations during a tour of the major east coast cities. Also in the frame: latest Exchequer returns and GDP data. Boom and bust in a week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Inflation surprises, again, by its rapid fall. But central bankers have been telling us that the 'last mile' will take years. The markets have been laughing at those central bankers. And it is said that our monetary masters value their 'credibility'. Self-awareness training wouldn't go amiss. Or maybe they should just hire a decent PR agency. A week of obituaries. The death of the greatest investo...

The right is rising, even in Ireland. Each country has its own drivers but immigration is a unifying grievance. How big a problem is this in Ireland? Should we all abandon social media? Follow the example of the mayor of Paris? What are the economics of immigration? When people say "we should spend our money on our own citizens" are they right? Or just not able to do arithmetic? The grass isn't al...

What will be the business and economic consequences of the Dublin riots? There is often trouble when large pools of uneducated, unemployed young men are organised by old men - mad mullahs, army councils, Trump-style demagogues. The list of suspects is a long one. Whether that trouble fizzles out or leads to revolution depends on many things. Mostly how the rest of us react to far right (or left) n...

Argentina is a study in not how to do it. For a very long time. And here they go again. Weep for Argentina. Given the serial objections by Sinn Fein to house building in their back yard, NIMBY's should probably vote for them. But where are the houses going to be built? At what cost? Shinner published targets for house buliding on their watch are close to being met by the current government. If hou...

Solving the Irish housing crisis is, in principle, easy: just build 50,000 units a year until the word 'crisis' disappears from the headlines and public consciousness. Is that a practical, realistic proposition - for any government of any persuasion? Why not just do it? Lots of trade data, particularly for exports, suggest that economies are slowing down. Irish exports are really hurting from the...

The only way to understand the latest outbreak of fighting in the ongoing Conservative Party's 30 year war is to look back at history. This has all been going on for a long time. To paraphrase (only a bit) John Major, this is now the Battle of the Bastards. It really is Game of Thrones stuff. But the country - the UK - is being laid to waste. The fight to succeed Sunak is well and truly on. It cou...

Rishi Sunak surprises everybody - he is even capable of a surprise! Cameron is back in, Braverman is back out. Sunak wants to be the candidate for change? Look at Cameron's track record and weep. But could his return be a really smart move by Sunak? Or will it merely invite the right-wing nut-jobs to try and defenestrate him? Just when there was a chance for UK politics to become boringly predicta...

In this episode Jim asks Chris if he is ghost writing articles for the FT. An actual FT journalist, one of their best, wrote an article about the things that Chris has been banging on about since The Other Hand started. Life in the Uk is getting steadily worse. Tim Harford cites three personal anecdotes and lots of data to make the point that public sector services have collapsed in the UK. Chris...

The peak in interest rates grows closer. Maybe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.