Firstly I’m far from an economist, I’m not even an amateur economist, dabbling in the social science in school and third level made sure that my economic genius would not see the light of day in the business or academic world. But even I can still recognise that when 46 highly qualified academics sign an article in a newspaper, it might be worth having a look at what they are saying.
Yes, it’s Nama — those four letters have dominated every news bulletin since the Government announced that it was going to set up the agency to help us out of the financial mire that fuelled the now extinct Celtic Tiger (you remember him, don’t you? ). The summer has been dominated by tit-for-tat shots across the bows from the opponents to the plan and from the Government who are pressing ahead with this bad bank to consume an estimated €90 billion in book value loans from the major banks in the State to ensure that we don’t fall into a financial black hole that we will never emerge from again.
The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that somthing has to be done, but what is the solution to the problem? Everyone has a different school of thought, a bit like economic theory itself. The Labour Party supports the idea of temporarily nationalising the banks, Fine Gael has called it a €90 billion double or quits gamble, and has proposed to start a national good bank with a credit facility of €20 billion to loan (soon it will all add up to real money, I guess ), and the average person on the street is just confused by it and is more worried about holding on to their own job and pension and doesn’t have enough time in the day to take in the whole debate from either side on the proposal. The one thing that seems to be clear is that the majority party in Government wants to plough ahead with Nama and unless its junior partner and the independents who support them cut their wings on this, the other sides can shout all they want but there isn’t much they can do about it.
But getting back to where I started, if your child is embarking on third level education for the first time or is in third level or even graduate studies, you would assume that he/she is being taught by the best and the brightest. And you would assume that they would be educating them with the right tools to be a success in whatever field they are about to embark on after graduation. Well, if any of those children are studying business, commerce, economics, or any of the variety of business related courses that are on offer in the universities around the country, those 46 signatures to the article in Wednesday’s The Irish Times are probably lecturing them or heading up their courses. Be it in Trinity College, UCD, or its graduate arm in the Smurfit school, the Kemmy School of Business in the University of Limerick, NUIG, DCU, UCC, and NUI Maynooth, because it’s all academics from these universities who put their name to the criticism. And if they are wrong about Nama and i’s impacts, where does that leave the next generation of economists that this country produces and their education? Government advisors have pointed out there are more academics who were asked to sign the article than did sign it, but as any economist will tell you, it’s not an exact science.
