Ferdinand (sorry I dont normally just do first names but Ferdinand is just Ferdinand from now on as I still simply struggle to spell his second name) has a nice new feature on his blog containing interviews with people relevant to the University Sector. Below is an interview with Danny McCoy, new Director of IBEC that includes some comments about the relationship between IBEC and the universities.
link here
3 comments:
Thanks, Liam - and I do appreciate the plug! Danny also gives a qualified endorsement of NAMA in this interview.
A very very qualified endorsement. If you read closely what he says it is something of the order "now that we have no other plan at this stage, its better to do this than to do nothing". NAMA is also certainly better for business than the taxpayer. I'm not suggesting that being good for business is not good for the taxpayer but the partial endorsements of people like Goldman Sachs executives and IBEC must be put in the wider context of the costs and benefits of this compared to other schemes. Of course, it is good that Goldman Sachs execs are happy with NAMA but at what cost and what is the relationship between such an attitude and their actual investment behaviour? Similarly, IBEC and Danny McCoy himself partially endorsing NAMA is not fully informative as to whether this is good for the average punter and the majority opinion among economists is that the average taxpayer is taking too much risk on this scheme. For example, you should perhaps have asked Danny to define "will hurt" and "prospect of working". The definition of these is the key thing.
Danny McCoy's Comments.
"I think NAMA is a very imperfect solution. But given the time and effort that has been put into setting it up, I think it has as good a chance of flying as any of the alternatives. Nobody can be sure of what the right solution is, but what we do know is that the biggest danger for us is that we might have a zombie banking system for a decade or more which would consign us to a period of misery. This is a solution that will hurt, but it is short and sharp and has a prospect of working. This proposal has been around for a long time, and we need to get on and do something now. I would be conditionally supportive of NAMA."
Equally one might ask, given the time and effort they have put into it, why haven't they done a better job?
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