World War Z is a favourite movie. Watching again for first time since Covid. First medic to appear raises Spanish flu. Still astonished by how little comparison has been/was made with that pandemic over the past four years.

Period of weakness in Irish goods exports continued in March, with values down a bit.

Chart illustrates how the pharma sector dominates merchandise exports, exceeding all other categories combined and many times greater than agriculture.

The trend continues: weak economic growth in Europe is mostly accounted for by the large countries, with Poland the exception.

Government supports for businesses across the EU during Covid may have been too successful, keeping firms that were about to go out of business alive. Such firms keep workers who could move to better jobs in healthy businesses.

Lots of talk of government supports for businesses. Such supports were fully justified when Covid hit. They are not justified at a time of full employment. They damage productivity, high growth sectors struggling to find talent and the public finances. No to Zombie firms.

The European economy emerged from more than a year of stagnation in the first quarter of 2024, with GDP up 0.3% compared with the final months of 2023.
Employment, which grew during the stagnation, hit yet another all-time high. As it grew by less than GDP, productivity up too.

Irish property price inflation slowed to 0.4% in March compared to February, the smallest monthly increase since May 2023.

Nationally prices are at record nominal highs, having doubled since the low-point of a decade ago and are 8% higher than the 2007 peak.

Small EU countries such as Ireland are not safe from the threat posed by information manipulation from hostile countries European External Action Service - EEAS 🇪🇺 expert tells IIEA and urges every country to have a national counter #disinformation strategy and a 'clear leader'
irishexaminer.com/news/arid-4139…

'Is the Irish government getting it right on Gaza' the title of latest IIEA podcast.
It also examines how Irish public opinion differs from elsewhere (poll last November- 51% sympathise with Palestinians compared to 18% in UK).

open.spotify.com/episode/1xhaNy…

music.youtube.com/watch?v=kT43Ei…

Looking forward to hosting Stanford economist John Cochrane this afternoon Irish time at 4pm.

Sign up details here.

iiea.com/events/the-fis…

'Is the Irish government getting it right on Gaza' the title of latest IIEA podcast.
It also examines how Irish public opinion differs from elsewhere (poll last November- 51% sympathise with Palestinians compared to 18% in UK).

open.spotify.com/episode/1xhaNy…

music.youtube.com/watch?v=kT43Ei…

The most important thing to understand about history, is that the industrial revolution is the main thing that mattered. Even the Roman Empire only made a small dent.

best geopolitical hack i’ve seen of this meme.

Among other issues discussed here is how different Ireland’s national conversation on the Israel-Palestine conflict is compared to other European countries.

A former top U.S. diplomat has stark warnings for the future of NATO under a potential second Trump term: “Don’t throw it out because you would never be able to recreate it again.”

Inside our exit interview with Victoria Nuland:
politico.com/news/magazine/…

Does this look like deglobalisation to you?
👉A/B testing on left/right charts
🗒️(they show the same data)
(🔗linkedin.com/pulse/real-two…) IMD Adam Posen Simon Lester Simon J. Evenett EU Trade 🇪🇺 Trade Diversion (Jonathan Dingel) TradeExperettes Hanna C. Norberg Beata Javorcik Alan Beattie

500,000 Chinese vehicle exports in April.

China on track to top 6 million vehicle exports a year (adding to its position as the world's largest exporter)

Stunning change

1/2

Pointless geography fact: the #UK and #Australia both have a small island close to their shores. #Map shows #Ireland and #Tasmania are of similar size.

Irish politicians talk a lot about the Israel-Palestine conflict and overwhelmingly take the same position. Why? And do their utterances move the dial with the protagonists? Discussed here.