Madam, – The Government adviser, Dr Alan Ahearne, has been in the media defending Nama and denouncing its critics. My understanding is that my taxes are being spent on hiring his services as professional analyst. He is not an elected member of the Government; let alone Minister for Finance. Let him get back to work on his spreadsheets and suchlike and leave the political debate to those elected by us to carry out the debate.
If I hire a plumber I expect to see him fixing the pipes in the attic, not swanning around with my guests and visitors. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – With a view towards the future, and the restoration of the economy onto a better footing, perhaps consideration should be given to establishing some form of licensing or registration system for “developers”. As I understand it, anybody from a taxi-driver to a small farmer to a professor can set themselves up as a development company, acquire land and build as many houses as they like (subject to planning) with no prior personal experience or training and very limited accountability!
As things stand they can then walk away, without penalty, leaving eyesores and a calamity of poorly built/unfinished estates, houses and general mess. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – While recently reacquainting myself with the history of republican Rome, I happened across a passage possessing more than a slight similarity to our own contemporary economic predicament. In 352 BC, as a result of the crippling debt incurred from extortionate interest rates, a commission of five was established in the role of a state bank in order to alleviate insolvency among Plebeian debtors. This was effected through a large-scale reimbursement to creditors using resources from the exchequer.
Economics in Rome were rudimentary at best. Although the complexity of the financial sector has developed immeasurably in the millenniums since, the problems that plague it – avarice and apathy – seem to transcend ethnicity, culture and time and have remained inextricably embedded. The Romans would be startled at the bewildering scale of modern economics, but they would all too well recognise its deficiencies. – Yours, etc,