How successful have the Irish Government and the European Central Bank Essay

How successful have the Irish Government and the European Central Bank been in running the Irish economy over the last two years - Essay Example Ever country’s economic policy has a number of generic objectives like attaining economic growth, healthy levels of employment and inflation, increasing price stability and equilibrium on the balance of payments. To this end governments use tools of macro-economic policy, like fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies (Palmer, n.d). The Irish economy is member of the European Union and controlled by the European Central Bank (ECB) and thus does not have perfect autonomy when it comes to making its economic policy. The ECB has a vested interest in the Euro remaining integrated across Europe and thus the interest rates implemented across all the members of the European Union have a greater agenda than that country’s economy; to keep the Euro healthy. By setting monetary policy and exchange rate, the ECB makes sure that there is price stability. However, since policies are implemented under an umbrella, sometimes decisions of the ECB for the European Union’s greater good may prove to be detrimental for a particular economy which is precisely what happened with Ireland (Palmer, n.d). The Irish crisis hit full swing in 2008 when Lehman Brothers collapsed. Their financial sector was weak and out in the open and vulnerability was high. Ireland found it particularly hard to recover from its substantial overseas debt. Fearing a contagion, the government introduced a blanket liability guarantee; however this back fired severely, destroying Ireland’s credit image and creating political tension for Ireland. (Connor et al., 2010). However, after going through a really bad time, the Irish economy finally showed positive signs in 2010, it was expected that with recovery the economy would gain full strength. The unemployment figures also rose substantially around this time, but subsequently normalized. In the second half of 2010, the Irish government took a large loan from its fellow members of the EU which was aimed at increasing growth and improving the financial system. The new policy saw strong implementation, after the first two quarters a lot of improvement was seen. The policy objectives also aimed at improving employment in economy and improving Ireland’s competitiveness in the global market. Deflation in Ireland finally started lifting off in 2011, prices began rising as factors that had been depressing them were alleviated by the new policy implementation. A jobs initiative was also put forward around the same time with the aim of creating over 20,000 jobs. The economy of Ireland finally recovered in a plan which is divided in five stages. Stage one; export led growth, this is where net exports were increased so that competitiveness would increase. Net exports had increased over 9% by 2010. Stage two; investment, increasing FDI in Ireland helped create demand for it in the world market. Stage three, employment increment, expansion in this area occurs as a joint effect by first two stages. Stage four; improved spending, increase disposable income and consequently spending of households are increased. Stage five; make demand for d omestic goods stronger, this will cause increase in tax collections and economic growth will pick up. (Hickey, 2011). As part of the fixing up of Ireland through the new policy, the government also strengthened the capital base of its domestic banks. This was thought of to have strengthened that sector and eventually Ireland’s financial institutions and markets. (Langedijk, 2011). Summing up, we look at where Ireland stands in 2012 to see whether the policy objectives and vision of the Irish government with respect to its economy have been able to be successful over the last two years. According to this report published by the Department of finance

Outline summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Outline summary - Essay Example ts include loving the truth, dividing the problems into its essential component, and analyzing each component, building a coherent theory, or argument from each of these component parts, and conjecture and refute by looking for possible counter-arguments against one’s position. The next commandments are revision and rebuilding one’s beliefs, seeking simpler explanations to problems that seem too complex using the parsimony principle, living the truth, and, finally, living the good (Pojman & Vaughn 5). Philosophy revolves around analyzing and constructing arguments, which is also referred to as logic. This involves the support of a thesis with reasons set forth as assertions that a statement is either false or true (Pojman & Vaughn 33). There are two types of arguments; inductive and deductive. Inductive arguments provide probable support for the conclusions, while deductive arguments provide support for the conclusion that is logically conclusive. The deductive argument that successfully offers logical support for the conclusion is valid, which means that where the premises are held to be true, it is not possible for the conclusions to be false. A deductive argument should, therefore, be valid and possess true premises, following which it is called a sound argument (Pojman & Vaughn 35). However, it is normally difficult for someone to state an author’s exact premises. Inductive arguments, on the other hand, do not seek to preserve the truth. It cannot guarantee that the truth of the conclusion is tied to that of the premise. It is meant to give conclusions probable support that makes it more likely that the conclusion is true than false (Pojman & Vaughn 37). If the inductive argument succeeds in doing this, it said to be a strong argument, while an inductive argument that does not provide a similar level of support to the conclusion is referred to as weak. Inductive arguments can reason from premises concerning groups and make conclusions about one