Housing crisis only expected to get worse until 2023

According to Focus Ireland, the most optimistic statement on housing released by the government reveals that the housing crisis will continue get worse until 2022 or later. This statement is considered very optimistic as housing issues will likely progress into 2023.

The Department of Housing targets 48,000 new home completions by 2023. If this target is achieved, 2023 could be the first time that housing supply could potentially exceed housing demand. Figures provided by the Department of Housing have shown the first time that an admission denoted housing and homelessness will only continue to get worse in the next few years.

Although the Department of Housing has set a target of 48,000 new homes to be built by 2023, this target could be missed. If the target is completed or surpassed then burdens associated with the housing crisis could be significantly reduced. The problems that could be reduced would include reduced homelessness and new homes would create more supply for social and affordable housing. However, if homes were to be sold at current market values then the impact on …

Read More →

After the crisis: A new financial structure

This is a speech given by Paul McCully of PIMCO at the annual Minksy Conference, it is a long one but well worth reading

Start:

Thank you very much. It is an absolute pleasure and honor to be here. I gave the keynote a couple years ago and it was my first time to be at the Minsky Conference. I feel that I’m part of a church, and it’s a good church in that we’re on the right side of history. And it’s absolutely wonderful to be attending services with you again.

I want to open up with a little story that should make everybody in the room feel particularly good, and then we’ll get into discussing economics. Harry Markowitz has been a friend of mine for about a decade. I became friends with Harry through two channels. Number one, Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates has an Advisory Panel of famous academics, such as Harry and Jack Treynor, that he gets together every year. I’m frequently invited to speak. We spend two or three days over a weekend together. I’ve …

Read More →

Greece and the IMF

The news this morning that the IMF may be the answer to the fiscal woes of Greece is not good news for the Euro (although Ireland individually will benefit from a weaker Euro, any IMF intervention may weaken our reserve currency status).

However, it may ultimately prove to be the ‘least worst’ solution, up until now the EMU nations and the ECB were all in agreement that Europe would solve its own problems, Sarkozy has been particularly vocal on this, but now the Germans seem to be pulling away from the idea of a bailout. Why? One one hand there are elements of the German leadership that feel that the IMF are the only ones with the ‘instruments’ that can fix the problems in Greece.

Greece has issues deeper than the surface problems visible in demonstrations and minor riots, their statistics are not trusted internationally, something which they have gone to great pains to reverse.

When it comes to German feelings on the matter, their conservative national paradigm doesn’t sit well with what they …

Read More →

Your loss my Grain.

I have spoken in length about agflation in 2008 and as much as I’d love to to consign the whole topic to history, however much like a few choice people I know, it simply won’t go away, even though it would be great if it did.

Most of the coverage in the press is focusing on biofuels and the fact that they are using up human consumables to make car consumables, however this is really only a partial answer, what is likely the true driving force is the emergence of Western style diets amongst the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and other emerging economies. The breakdown is simple, staple foods and their availability are under attack from biofuels but its animals and the increased consumption of them that are causing the most serious shortfall.

I’m not about to go all pro-vegetarian/vegan/macrobiotic or anything on people but there is a strong argument for a reduction in meat consumption apart from the obvious health risks that a meat heavy diet brings with it. The issue in the here and now is …

Read More →