Europe and Britain struggle in changing markets in 2025

In Europe 2024, the STOXX 600 ended the 52 weeks with a gain of 6%, according to Reuters. The STOXX and the American S&P 500 tracked each other from the early 1990s but from about 2012, the 500 never looked back.

The Financial Times at the year-end reported that Germany has an answer to US “magnificent seven” (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Tesla).

Wiltons still going strong as one of London's oldests restaaurants

Wiltons is most known for its oysters which one would expect as George William Wilton first opened his shellfish mongers close to Haymarket in 1742.

"It is located in Jermyn Street in the heart of London’s St James’s, is one of London’s oldest restaurants and is steeped in elegance and tradition. 

EU house prices up by 48% in less than 10 years

In less than 10 years, between 2015 and 2023, house prices in the European Union (EU) on average rose by 48%.

The biggest increase is marked in Hungary, where prices rose 173%, and the lowest in Finland, with just 5%.

Juho Keskinen, a Finish economist, has said that the capital region of Helsinki rose to levels that are unattainable for many low and middle-income earners.”

The situation is a consequence of both wage growth and house price decreases, according to Keskinen.

"In regions where house prices have risen only modestly for an extended period of time – namely, regions outside the largest population centres – the main determining factor has been wage growth.

In Helsinki, Tampere and Turku, for example, house prices have seen more dramatic increases, as well as decreases, in recent decades."

Europe imports 80% of digital tech; trade-to-GDP ratio above 50% and German debt brake

In September 2024 Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank (ECB) presented a report on Europe to Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission:

The Future of European Competitiveness – A Competitiveness Strategy for Europe.

On 26 July 2012, then ECB President Mario Draghi gave the so-called “whatever it takes” speech, which now is widely considered as the turnaround point in the European sovereign debt crisis.

Shortly after, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced the details of its outright monetary transactions programme (OMT) tool.

Germany again the sick man of Europe

Czar Nicholas I of Russia in 1853 is said to have described the Ottoman Empire as the "Sick man of Europe." 

The phrase "the sick man of Europe" appeared in The New York Times in 1860.

The empire's decline was very long and after the Second World War, France, Britain and Italy earned the label "the sick man of Europe."

In 1967 the British government devalued the pound sterling against other currencies.

Harold Wilson, the prime minister said “From now on, the pound abroad is worth 14% or so less in terms of other currencies. That doesn’t mean, of course, that the pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued.” 

In 1971 President Nixon ended the postwar system where currencies were fixed to the dollar.

In 1976 the UK government called on the International Monetary (IMF) for a bailout.

Germany

Etihad Airways needs to address its failings

An Etihad Airways aircraft at Dublin Airport

Not too long ago, the American market dominated intercontinental flights serving Dublin, Ireland. Now, almost 50 airlines in total, are in the market. From the Middle East, Etihad Airways, Emirates and Qatar Airways service Dublin.

Etihad is the national airline of Abu Dhabi, which is part of the 7-country United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi is the largest Emirate in the UAE, occupying 84% of the nation's land. It has 200 islands and a 700-km-long coastline. The total area is 67,340 square kilometres, and Abu Dhabi City is the federal capital of the UAE.

Emirates is based at Dubai International Airport (DXB) in Garhoud, Duba. The airline operates out of Terminal 3, where flights arrive and depart from gates A, B, or C. Emirates says its the largest airline in the Middle East, with a fleet of almost 250 aircraft. It flies to more than 150 cities in 80 countries across six continents.

On October 15, 2024, at 6:00 a.m., I took a taxi from my hotel in Dublin. I had taken a flight to Dublin from Kuala Lumpur on October 1, 2024, using Etihad.

The scheduled 9:00 am flight from Dublin to Abu Dhabi on October 15 and a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur were delayed until after 10:00 am.

About 20 minutes before arrival in Abu Dhabi a British staffer said people planning to go to Kuala Lumpur may be OK but if not the ground staff would help.

The Abu Dhabi airport has almost 100 gates. So it's a large place

I got a small piece of paper for instructions and that was it. (see the detail below).

Even the piece of paper missed that I had to go through two different screenings.

I went to LEVEL 3 but it was about 9:00 pm and relevant staff were not at their desks.

After about 40 minutes in a car, I arrived at Abi Dhabi's Marriott Bonvoy hotel. The staff was pleasant and I had 8 minutes in the restaurant before closure at 10:00 but it was poor.

I would give the hotel a 2-star.

I was in Business Class, which didn't matter.

On the 16th at 5 am I was picked up for a trip to the airport.

Ethid needs to improve its services and even on some of the long-haul aircraft, there is no onboard entertainment. 

__________________________________________________________ 

      Please go to ARRIVALS - LEVEL 0 and clear UAE Immigration

       After you have cleared Immigration, please proceed

      To Departures Area (LEVEL 3), Guest Services Desk (in front of

      Row C) for the transportation.           

 __________________________________________________________                  

World’s Top 100 Airlines 2024

Last Updated June 2024 - The Passenger's Choice Awards

This ranking of the top 100 airlines has been in operation for a quarter century.

"Qatar Airways has been voted the World’s Best Airline at the 2024 World Airline Awards, the eighth time that the airline has scooped the Airline of the Year title in the 25-year history of the awards"

Misinformation and amnesia from the American super rich

A large-scale Bloomberg analysis reveals that Elon Musk has been spreading debunked theories of undocumented voters swaying the US election, and growing his influence in the process — making him the biggest promoter of anti-immigrant conspiracies on X, the social media platform he owns. Bloomberg's Sarah Frier joined Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow on "Bloomberg Technology."

If Trump loses, he and Mussk will say that hordes of migrants aided the Democrats.

"My colleagues and I recently did a major data analysis of Elon Musk’s posts about immigration and voter fraud. He frames migration to the US as something chaotic, unchecked and scary — and a tool that could be weaponized by the Democrats to rig the election in November. Musk owns X, and has more than 200 million followers. Immigration and voter fraud has become his most popular policy topic online, our analysis found."

Washington Post says Musk was an illegal alien

The Washington Post said Elon Musk denied in a late-night post having worked illegally in the United States, following the report that said Musk lacked the legal status to build the start-up that made him a millionaire in the 1990s.

“I was in fact allowed to work in the US,” Musk wrote on X, the platform he bought in 2022.

The Post says Musk has become a vociferous critic of the administration’s handling of immigration, decrying what he calls “open borders” and warning of the perils of illegal immigration. On his X feed he often laments the flood of “illegals” and baselessly alleges that it is part of a massive voter importation scheme.

President Biden on 26 October: “That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be [an] illegal worker here when he was here,” he said in Pittsburgh.

Biden added “I’m serious. He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn’t in school. He was violating the law. He’s talking about all these illegals coming our way?”

In a 2005 email obtained by The Post, Musk wrote about his arrival in the United States in 1995.

He had applied to a Stanford University graduate program, which he did not end up attending, so he could stay in the country.

“I had no money for a lab and no legal right to stay in the country, so that seemed like a good way to solve both issues,” Musk wrote.

According to federal immigration regulations that were in effect in the mid-1990s, foreign students with a J-1 visa were allowed to work only in limited circumstances if they were in “good academic standing” and pursuing a “full course of study.”

Musk has previously said: “I was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work. I was allowed to do work sort of supporting whatever."

Like many Irish students, I had a J-1 visa, but it was not for permanent residence. 

Musk, a South African native, did not attend Stanford classes when he arrived in Palo Alto in late 1995; instead, he worked to build a company.

This means that he was in the US as an illegal alien.

White Christian Nationalism overtakes America's "Shining City upon a Hill"

The Declaration of Independence of the 13 United States of America: On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, who convened at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in the colonial era capital of Philadelphia.

I was in the US in 1976, the year of the bicentenary and I bought this commemorative plate.

The United States was not born as a Christian Nation and it's bizarre that Donald Trump wants to make it. He is as devout as Putin.

In recent months, Trump has said that elections won't be necessary starting in 2028. “That statement is very simple, I said, ‘Vote for me, you’re not gonna have to do it ever again.’”

President-elect John F. Kennedy delivered an address in Boston, on January 9, 1961. It is called the"City Upon a Hill speech."

"For what Pericles had said to the Athenians has long been true of this commonwealth: 'We do not imitate — for we are a model to others.'"

And so it is that I carry with me from this state to that high and lonely office to which I now succeed more than fond memories of firm friendships. The enduring qualities of Massachusetts — by the Pilgrim and the Puritan, the fisherman and the farmer, the Yankee and the immigrant— will not be and could not be forgotten in this nation's executive mansion.

They are an indelible part of my life, my convictions, my view of the past, and my hopes for the future.

Allow me to illustrate: During the last sixty days, I have been at the task of constructing an administration. It has been a long and deliberate process. Some have counseled greater speed. Others have counseled more expedient tests.;

But I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier."

"We must always consider," he said, "that we shall be as a city upon a hill the eyes of all people are upon us."

Kennedy added “For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us — recording whether in our brief span of service, we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state — our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured…”

The Winthrop Fleet was a group of 11 ships led by John Winthrop out of a total of 16 funded by the Massachusetts Bay Company which together carried between 700 and 1,000 Puritans plus livestock and provisions from England to New England over the summer of 1630, during the first period of the Great Migration.

John Winthrop (1587-1649) became governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and like many towns in New England, Boston has its naming roots in old England. Boston, Massachusetts was named after Boston, Lincolnshire, about 100 miles north of London on the North Atlantic Sea.

At the start of the voyage, John Winthrop wrote his sermon, “A Model of Christian Charity.” But it was generally unknown until 1838 when it was discovered by the New York Historical Society.

Winthrop was not the author of this sentiment. He quoted the Bible: Matthew chapter 5 verse 14 in his famous phrase, “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill."

Ireland's GDP per capita at $39,000 in April 2024, Denmark at $69,000

GDP per capita, current prices

US dollars per capita

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April 2024 published a ranking of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The deep green on the map shows what are called 36 Advanced Countries.

The first two are anomalies. In Luxembourg, almost half the workforce lives in neighbouring countries while Irish data are about three times the reality because of foreign multinational distortions.

1) Luxembourg: 131,38 thousand; 2) Ireland: 106.06; 3) Switzerland: 105.67; 4) Norway: 94.66; 5) Singapore 88.45; 6) United States 85.37; 7) Iceland: 84.90; 8) Denmark: 68.90; 9) Australia: 66.59; 10) Netherlands: 63.75; 11) Austria: 59.23; 12) Sweden: 58.53; 13) Belgium: 55.54; 14) Finland: 55.13; 15) Canada: 54.87; 16) Germany; 54.29; 17) Isreal: 53.37; 18) United Kingdom: 51.07; 19) New Zealand 48,53; 20) France: 47,36; 21) Malta: 41.74;

Under 40,000:

Assassination attempt on Trump will embolden him and Democratic turmoil

A gunman at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania was killed by the Secret Service on Saturday, 13 July.

Trump said later online that he had been “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part” of his ear, at about 6.15 pm.

President Biden spoke to Trump late on Saturday according to the White House.

Biden said in a broadcast "There's no place in America for this kind of violence," the president said. "It's sick. It's sick. That's one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. You cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this."

Thousands of Republicans will gather in Milwaukee on Monday for the Republican National Convention, where Donald Trump and his soon-to-be-announced running mate are on course to officially be nominated by the party.

The Associated Press said the suspected shooter used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle to carry out the attack, a US official said. He was killed by officers.

Americans own 46% of the world's civilian-owned firearms and US firearm ownership rates far exceed those of other high-income countries. Forty-six per cent of US households report owning at least one firearm, including 30% of Americans who say they personally own a firearm.

The firearm homicide rate in the US is nearly 25 times higher than other high-income countries and the firearm suicide rate is nearly 10 times that of other high-income countries.

The New York Times says the 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, lived in a relatively affluent suburb in the South Hills region of Pittsburgh, about an hour’s drive from the site of the rally. The neighbourhood where he grew up is “pretty firmly middle class, maybe upper-middle class,” Dan Grzybek, who represents the area on the county council, said in an interview on Sunday.

Vienna again crowned world's most liveable city, Dublin dips to 39th ranking

Vienna again crowned as the world's best city for quality of life, in 2024

Time and again, Vienna, the capital city of Austria, has been voted the city with the best quality of life in the World.

The City of Vienna Government says "At the beginning of 2023, 1,102,570 Viennese were of Austrian origin, while 879,526 were of foreign origin. The main countries of origin of Viennese who are foreign nationals or were born abroad have hardly changed over the past years: at the beginning of 2023, 100,199 people originated from Serbia, 75,907 from Turkey, 69,265 from Germany and 55,151 from Poland.

The current metro area population of Vienna in 2024 is 1,990,000.

The annual Global Liveability Index ranks the liveability of 173 cities across five key categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

The 2024 survey saw a rise in the average scores, driven by gains in healthcare and education across developing countries. However, this has been largely offset by declines in scores for several top-tier cities.

According to the survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a unit of The Economist, Vienna is the world's most liveable city. At the same time, Dublin earned a 39th ranking, falling 7 ranks  — and the third biggest drop among any country.

Brussels has dropped five places, from 30 to 35. This is one of the biggest declines in the Liveability Index for 2024.

In Age of Conflict only 7.8% of World Population in Full Democracies

In 2024 there are only 24 Full Democracies in the World — 15 of them are in Western Europe. There is one in North America (Canada) and Africa (Mauritius); Two in Latin America and the Caribbean (Uruguay and Costa Rico); and 5 in Australia/Asia (Japan; Taiwan; Australia; New Zealand; and South Korea).

The far-right will have about 170 seats in the 720 European Parliament (about 24%). According to Parliament's rules, a political group shall consist of at least 23 Members elected in at least seven Member States. Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD) has 15 seats but needs a group.

European malaise

In 1997 in the UK when the Labour Party won power after 18 years of Tory rule, the GDP (gross domestic product) of the United Kingdom was valued in dollars at $1.56 trillion while the GDP of China was $962 billion and India's valued at $416 billion,

The grim fifties in Ireland and Cork City

St Patrick's Street, Cork, in the 1950s

Over 500,000 people left independent Ireland between 1945 and 1960. The 1961 Irish Census of population at 2,818, 341 was lower than the 1926 Census. The latter was the first Census of the Irish Free State.

The 1950s: “It Was a Great Time in America” but "Between 1946 and 1961, 531,255 people, almost 17% of the population, left Ireland. Forty per cent of those between the ages of 10 and 19 in 1951 were gone by 1961. Most of the migrants went to Great Britain, but 68,151 left for America during and after World War II (1941–1961).

This piece is an addendum to a personal piece I wrote last year: Michael Hennigan's year of 1953 and 70 years later

Recently I located Google photos of Geraldine Place, which was in the centre of industrial activity in the City of Cork, Ireland.

The rich countries immigration boom and housing crises

EU

According to Eurostat in 2022, legal net migration was 5.1mn people, who immigrated to the EU from non-EU countries, while 1.0mn people emigrated from the EU to destinations outside the EU.

The inflow of immigrants from non-EU countries more than doubled compared to the estimated 2.4mn in 2021. Conversely, the number of EU residents emigrating to countries outside the EU remained stable, with 1.0mn emigrants in 2021.

Note: Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and Liechtenstein did not include refugees from Ukraine who benefit from temporary protection in their population and migration statistics.

1.5mn people previously residing in one EU Member State migrated to another Member State in 2022, an increase of around 7% compared with 2021.

27.3mn people (6.1%) of the 448.8mn people living in the EU on 1 January 2023 were non-EU citizens (the total of foreign-born is double-see below).

The Irish Government has said "Since February 2022 just under 107,000 people have arrived in Ireland as Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2023 approximately 13,000 people applied for International Protection (asylum) in Ireland."

Smart City Index 2024: Dublin at 69th ranking among 142 cities

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564): His cities were Florence and Rome*

IMD World Competitiveness Center (International Institute for Management Development is a business school with campuses in Lausanne, Switzerland and Singapore). 

"Smart cities are a fast-growing species, and a fascinating field for new experiments in a number of critical areas, ranging from urban planning, sustainable energy, and transport strategies to social integration and talent attraction, to name a few. 

As leaders and citizens around the world continue to assess, design, implement and improve on ways to create better cities, they often find themselves confronted with a multitude of decisions and a wide range of partial solutions to specific problems such as traffic congestion, waste management and crime."

Israel's Carthage and Netanyahu's long record of duplicity

Evacuation warnings issued by Israel to people in Gaza ahead of attacks contained a host of significant errors, BBC analysis has revealed. Warnings contained contradictory information and sometimes misnamed districts, making them confusing to Gazans seeking safety. Experts have said such mistakes could violate Israel's obligations under international law.

Cato the Elder (234–149 BC) is said to have repeatedly uttered the line Cato the Elder (234–149 BC) is said to have repeatedly uttered the line "Carthāgō delenda est" / "Carthage must be destroyed" in the Roman Senate.

The city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC during the Third Punic War.

Carthaginian, 62,000 dead and 50,000 enslaved of an estimated 112,000 present in the city; Roman, 17,000 of 40,000.

After several decades, Carthage became one of Rome’s most important colonies.

What was common between Carthage, under Roman control of the rubble, and Israel since its independence in 1948, is collective punishment.

The United Nations in 1980 said "It is estimated that between 15 May 1948 and the end of 1951, more than 684,000 Jewish immigrants settled in Israel on a substantial part of the land abandoned by the Palestinians.

Of the 370 Jewish settlements established between 1948 and the beginning of 1953, 350 were established on land abandoned by the Palestinians. In 1954 more than one-third of Israel’s Jewish population, plus 250,000 new Jewish immigrants, settled in whole cities that had been completely deserted by the Palestinians as a result of the military operations of 1948. Jaffa, Acre, Lydda, Ramleh and Beisan were some of them.

As to the Palestinian Arabs who had remained in Israel, restrictive measures amounting to dispossession were taken by the Custodian of Absentee Property, who was inclined to interpret the Absentee Property Law of 1950 rather too broadly."

B'Tselem, the Iseral civil rights organisation, in 2023 said that 554 homes, not related to construction, were demolished, and 784 houses were demolished in 2022.

B'Tselem said in 2021 "Israel embarked on a large-scale demolition campaign throughout the West Bank, in which it destroyed and confiscated dwellings, tents, livestock enclosures, buildings under construction, a road, and even a structure intended for burial. Twenty-two people, including 15 children, lost their homes in one day."

"Demolition for alleged military purposes is also common."

This is common in the West Bank and East Jerestelam and has been standard since 1967.

B'Tselem says Israel is an apartheid state.

"Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations."

B'Tselem was established in February 1989 by a large group of Israeli lawyers, doctors and academics with the support of a lobby of ten members of the Knesset.

B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories strives for a future in which human rights, liberty and equality are guaranteed to all people, Palestinian and Jewish alike, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. 

[Such a future will only be possible when the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime end. That is the future we are working towards. B’Tselem (in Hebrew literally: in the image of), the name chosen for the organization by the late Member of Knesset Yossi Sarid (1940-2015), is an allusion to Genesis 1:27: “And God created humankind in His image. In the image of God did He create them.” 

The name expresses the universal and Jewish moral edict to respect and uphold the human rights of all people.] 

Ireland’s dual economy: divergent performance, lowest export rate in EU

"Ireland now is one of the top 10 investors in the United States’ economy," President Biden said at the 2024 St Patrick's Celebration. In 2022 the amount was almost $300bn and $431bn for Germany. This Irish yarn is about redomiciled US firms for tax purposes, not the small number of Irish multinationals.

Irish multinationals with market cap €10bn+: CRH plc (1970) from merger Cement Ltd (1936) & Roadstone Ltd (1949) market cap €54bn; Ryanair (1985) €24bn; Kingspan (1965) €15bn; Kerry Group (1972) €14bn; Smurfit Kappa (1934) €11bn.

Micro: enterprises with less than 10 persons employed;

Small: enterprises with 10 to 49 persons employed;

Medium: enterprises with 50 to 249 persons employed;

Large: enterprises with more than 250 persons employed.

According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) there were 11,785 exporting enterprises in 2022 i.e. with goods exports of over €1,000 in the year. (The minimum level is farcical.);

There were just 469 large exporting enterprises (with over 250+ employees) but they accounted for 79% (almost €161bn) of all exports in 2022. These large enterprises comprised only 4% of all enterprises;

There were 11,314 SMEs exporting goods in 2022. The total value of their exports was €38.3bn or 19% of total exports. This includes 6,917 micro-enterprises, which exported €10.1bn of goods;

Micro enterprises accounted for 59% of the number of exporters, but only 5% of the value of goods exported.

The 2021 EU chart above shows that from Micro to Medium the rate of 21% (19% on the bottom of the page) exporting was the lowest in the 27-member European Union and the highest at 79% for Large companies.

Small and medium enterprises in The Netherlands and Denmark have export rates of 60 and 50%.

The average reported turnover for the 12 months up to and including September 2022 was €4.03mn. This was €792,000 for Micro companies and €4.05mn for small-sized enterprises, while medium-sized companies reported an average turnover of €9.99mn.

Gross Value Added (GVA- see below) per person employed for large Irish-owned enterprises (250+ persons employed) was €68,993 but rose to €369,918 when foreign-owned large enterprises were included.

According to the CSO, a third of employment in Foreign-owned firms in Ireland is in SMEs.

Foreign-owned firms accounted for €332.1bn - an increase of 9.0% over 2020. This represents 86.6% of total sales related to government agency's clients in 2021.

Sales for Irish-owned firms increased by 13.1% between 2020 and 2021, amounting to €51.4bn or 13.4% of total sales.

(See below that other Foreign-owned firms import and sell in the Irish market.)

FT 1000 in 2024 tracks Europe’s fastest-growing companies

Raylyst Solar, a Prague-based solar panel distributor, heads the eighth annual FT 1000 ranking with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (%) of 824.4%. The company says "We are a leading distributor of photovoltaic products for the European region. We provide the highest quality solar panels falling into the Bloomberg Tier 1 category, as well as inverters and battery systems from verified manufacturers in the market."

Adagio of France, primarily sells to the digital advertising industry. It was founded in 2012 and is ranked second with a CAGR of 582.6%, followed by an Italian digital ad agency. Bidberry has 424.4% growth.

The FT 1000 ranking produced by the German statistics firm, Statista, highlights the European companies that have grown fastest.

They rank from the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR), in revenue from 2019 to 2022. This year, a minimum average growth rate of 36.9% is required for participation.

Ireland's GDP per capita in 2023 at €30,000 - Denmark at €69,000

ECB: (European Central Bank): Intangible assets of multinational enterprises in Ireland and their impact on euro area GDP

The 20-country Euro Area has a population of about 348,000,000 and the EU is at 448,000,000.

The Irish population in December 2023 is estimated to have been 5,330,000.

Denmark in 2023 had a euro income per capita of €69,100. It is the most prosperous country in Europe (absen shenanigans) with a population close to 6mn.

A phantom Contract Manufacturing /Goods for processing was to be among MNC (multinational) deductions made in 2017. It was to be deleted from the headline GDP to produce a Modified General National Income (GNI*).

However, it got worse every year between 2017-2023 (see the chart above).

Irish Government may have nixed a key remedy for 'Leprechaun economics'

GDP (Gross domestic product) was falsely boosted in 2022 by €143bn and €115bn in 2023.

I deducted €115bn from the GNI* and the Irish income per capita was about €30,000 in 2023.

The notion that Ireland is among the richest in the world, would earn a Piseóg (an Irish curse) from many Irish people.

Denmark ranked 9th among the 132 economies featured in the Global Innovation Index 2023. Ireland has a small innovation base.

In 2023 Denmark's flagship drug firm Novo Nordisk, became Europe's most valuable company. In early March 2024, Novo Nordisk was the 12th most valuable company in the world, with a market cap of $604bn.

Competition for obesity drugs will bring down current high valuations enjoyed by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. However, Denmark has been a pioneer in developing commercial wind power since the 1970s and Denmark is the world's fifth-largest maritime shipping nation.

It's 39 years since the birth of a significant multinational in Ireland: Ryanair the largest airline in Europe both in terms of fleet size (527 aircraft) and routes served (1,831).

(Provisional data on the Irish National Accounts have been published, and final figures will be published next July.)

Ireland once had a significant pharmaceutical company, at the turn of the century. It was founded by an American in 1969 and in the late 1990s, its value on the Irish Stock Exchange reached over €20bn. In 2001 Élan Corporation was the world's 20th-largest drug company.

In January 1984, Élan became the first Irish company to secure a public listing in America, floating on the NASDAQ. In 1990 Élan became the first Irish company to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 2002 a corrupt plan by executives was revealed. They had agreed on complex joint-venture agreements with 55 companies. By keeping the company’s stake in each of these vehicles below 20%, Élan was able to keep their poor results off the corporation’s income statements. There were problems with products and by 2013 several units had been sold and the company was acquired by an American firm. The price was €6.5bn.

Global Finance magazine has the 10 richest countries in the world in 2024 with Luxembourg, Ireland, and Singapore in the lead. Switzerland has a 6th ranking and Norway is at 9th. The United States is 10th.

Denmark with a population of 5,911,000 has an 11th position at $75,000 or €69,100.

GDP-PPP (Purchasing power parity) per capita ($): Luxembourg $143,304; Ireland $137,638 and Singapore is at $133,108.

Both Ireland and Luxembourg are anomalies.

About 75% of Luxembourg's workforce comprises immigrant workers or cross-border commuters. The share of cross-border workers has increased from 3% in 1961 to 47% in 2023; nearly one in two cross-border workers comes from France.

China world leader in 37 of 44 critical technologies, EU missing

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) was formed in 2001 and the Critical Technology Tracker was launched on 1st March 2023. It identified China as having stolen a march on its competitors.

ASPI said that China's global lead extends to 37 of the 44 technologies tracked, with the country excelling in defence and space-related technologies. The United States had 7 positions.

The think-tank said "Notably, China's strides in nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles, reportedly took US intelligence by surprise in August 2021. ASPI's Critical Technology Tracker shows that, for some technologies, all of the world's top 10 leading research institutions are based in China, collectively generating nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked country, most often the US."

The dataset revealed a large gap between China and the US, "as the leading two countries, and everyone else. The data then indicates a small, second-tier group of countries led by India and the UK: other countries that regularly appear in this group — in many technological fields — include South Korea, Germany, Australia, Italy, and less often, Japan."

Australia was in the top five for nine technologies; Italy (seven technologies), Iran (six), Japan (four) and Canada (four).

Russia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, France, Malaysia and the Netherlands were in the top five for one or two technologies. Several other countries, including Spain and Turkey, make the top 10 countries but were outside the top five.

ASPI noted, "One surprising finding of the report is that Iran has surpassed countries like Japan, Canada, France and Russia to secure its place in the top five in six critical technologies."

Value of Amsterdam house doubled in over 350 years - What happened next?

In 1625 Pieter Fransz, a carpenter, built a house on the outskirts of Amsterdam, by the new Herengracht (Gentleman's Canal). A picture of the house can be seen above (at the left) and below.

The Eighty Years' War, (1568–1648), was initially a fight for the Netherlands' independence from Spain, which led to the separation of the northern and southern Netherlands, and the formation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (the Dutch Republic).

The Dutch Republic was a confederation from 1579 to 1795 and in the 1600s its population was the richest in the world on a per capita basis.

The Southern Netherlands also called the Catholic Netherlands, were part of the Low Countries. They were controlled by Spain (1556–1714), Austria (1714–94) and added into France (1794–1815). This area was most of modern Belgium [at the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, Belgium (The Southern Netherlands) and the Northern Netherlands (Holland) were united to form one state (Belgium became independent in 1831)].

First Modern Economy: Myths on tulips & most valuable firm in history

Piet Eichholtz (1962), professor of Real Estate and Finance at Maastricht University, in 1997 published 'A Long-Run House Price Index: The Herengracht Index, 1628-1973.'

Prof Eichholtz had transactional details for 487 houses on the Herengracht and from 1632 to 1634 house prices fell almost 50%.

In 1636 alone 17,000 people or 14% of the Amsterdam population died during a plague.

700 years of Amsterdam was celebrated in 1975. The book 'Vier eeuwen Herengracht'(1975 'Four Centuries Herengracht') chronicled all the families that had lived on the Herengracht.

The average real price increase after World War II was about 3.2% per annum. Nevertheless, the real value of the index in 1973 was only twice as high as it was in 1628.

Prof Anne Goldgar, the author of 'Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age' (2007) wrote that the crash in 1637 was probably caused by unsustainability, and fears of oversupply. But the effect wasn't nearly as bad as the story suggests.

"I looked to try and find anybody that was made bankrupt because this is the myth of course that people were drowning themselves in canals because they were made bankrupt," she says. "Actually I couldn't find anybody that was bankrupt because of Tulip Mania."

Lodewijk Petram, author of ‘The World’s First Stock Exchange’ (2014) says “There were some 285 people actively involved in bulb trading in Haarlem, with an estimated sixty traders in Amsterdam.”

The Dutch economy primarily flourished due to its efficient textile, shipbuilding, and agricultural industries; also its development of an advanced financial system; and its establishment of monopolies on international trade such as in spices, sugar, and slaves were important. Migration to The Netherlands also helped.

Elections galore in 2024 - Ireland among reluctant voters

The Pew Research Center published in late 2022 the most recent nationwide election results for 50 countries, mostly with highly developed economies and solid democratic traditions. The Center said the clear turnout champion was Uruguay: In the second, decisive round of that nation’s 2019 presidential election, 94.9% of the estimated voting-age population and 90.1% of registered voters cast ballots.

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) based in Stockholm, has a database of the Voting Age Population (VAP), as well as the number of Registered Voters (REG) as indicators of political participation. The VAP figure includes an estimated number of all those citizens over the legal voting age, while the registration rate comprises the actual number of people on the voters’ roll.

Ireland's VAP Turnout rate was only 56.65% in the general election of 2020; 58.04% in 2016 and 63.78% in 2011.

The Irish general election in February 2011 was crucial as it came months following the economic rescue following the busting of the property bubble.

In November 2010, the Irish government sought help from the IMF and the European Union, which together provided loans totalling €67.5bn — equal to 40%t of Ireland's then economy. The rescue involved the International Monetary Fund (IMF); European Central Bank (ECB), and also the British government, which gave a loan to Ireland.

In February 2011 36% of the 18 age-plus population did not vote.

The Irish VAP was 77.76% in 1973 when Ireland joined the European Economic Community (EEC). It was 73.41% in 1948.

The 2020 Irish poll was the first general election held on a Saturday since 1918 but the participation rate still fell.

The next Irish general election has to be held by March 2025 to elect the 34th Dáil, the lower house of Ireland's parliament, the Oireachtas.

Under the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2023, there will be 174 TDs (Repersatives) at the next election, an increase of 14 seats from the current Dáil, and an increase in the number of constituencies from 39 to 43. This will be the largest Dáil in the history of the state.

4,000+ big multinationals fall within new global tax regime

Paolo Gentiloni, EU Commissioner for Economy, says that the coming into force of new rules for big multinational firms in Europe and in jurisdictions around the world is a historic reform which marks a major step towards a fairer corporate taxation system.

He says the reforms have the potential to generate an extra $220bn annually — about 9% to help countries around the world, to fund crucial investments and high-quality public services.

Gentiloni says that since 1980 the rate of corporate taxes has fallen from an average of 40 to 23% and across Europe they have fallen from 45 to just under 20%. He says additional sweeteners, preferential rates and unacceptable loopholes allowing profits to be shifted to zero or low-tax jurisdictions have resulted in effective tax rates well below those headline figures.

"As the extent of such practices has come to light, the general public and owners of smaller businesses have become increasingly indignant...More than 4,000 large multinationals fall within the scope of this potential future top-up tax in the EU — an additional incentive for jurisdictions elsewhere to comply with the new rules."

Ireland in 2023: Music and the death of Shane MacGowan

'Fairytale of New York' played at the funeral of Shane MacGowan: Glen Hansard & Lisa O'Neill in lead

(reload the page if the music doesn't start)

John Sheahan (born 1939), the last surviving member of 'The Dubliners' (the famous group that was founded in 1962) played at the funeral.

"The Rare Auld Times - John Sheahan – 80th Birthday Concert Celebration"

I was in Ireland in the first 3 weeks of December 2023. I was there to attend the funeral of my youngest brother in West Cork.

In Dublin despite the cold, the Christmas spirit was high. I visited The Ginger Man pub and the crowd spilled onto the pavement. A kind doorman prioritised me (I shocked him later by giving him a tip!).

Inside, the iconic Irish Christmas ‘Fairytale of New York’ played with the late frontman for the Pogues Group – Shane MacGowan and the late Kirsty MacColl singing.

James Patrick Donleavy (1926-2017), a New Yorker whose parents were Irish migrants, had served in the US Navy during World War II and came to Ireland in 1946. Trinity College in Dublin after the war was a mecca for adventurous Americans who used the GI Bill as a passport to higher education and he enrolled in the university.

Donleavy's book ‘The Ginger Man’ (1955) was banned in Ireland. ‘A Fairytale of New York’ (1973) had an Irish theme. In the 1980s the London-Irish group the Pogues popularised the song version.

Five years ago Saoirse Ronan, the Irish-American actress, sang 'Fairytale of New York' with Jimmy Fallon, the host of NBC's 'The Tonight Show.'

The Pogues achieved 2nd place in the UK single charts in 1987, and last week 'Fairytale of New York' got a 6th ranking.

Sinéad O'Connor (1966–2023); Shane MacGowan (1957–2023), and Christy Dignam (1960–2023) were leading Irish musicians who died in the year.

In The Ginger Man, Dublin, Ireland

Israel a "brutal colonial power"; local rights group calls it "apartheid"

A Bedouin by the Jordan River in the early 20th century taken by the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology.

The heinous attack on civilians in Israel, early on October 7th, was a monstrous crime perpetrated by Hamas terrorists. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said this month that Hamas committed war crimes but "The collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians is also a war crime, as is unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians."

"An eye for an eye" (Biblical Hebrew: עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן, ʿayīn taḥaṯ ʿayīn) is a commandment found in the Book of Exodus 21:23–27 citing the principle of reciprocal justice measure for measure.

Jesus in the Christian Bible John 8:7, with Mary Magdalene, a disciple, said to the men who wished to stone her to death, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

SEE also: Israel is the West's last settler colony

Avi Shlaim (born 1945) is an Israeli and British historian of Iraqi Jewish descent. He is an Emeritus Professor of International Relations at Oxford University.

He wrote an essay for The Economist on this year, the 75th anniversary of the declaration of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948.

"The controlling logic of settler-colonialism is to subdue and drive out the natives. Noam Chomsky, an eminent Jewish-American intellectual, has argued that settler colonialism is the most sadistic form of imperialism. In Palestine, the Zionist leaders were not sadistic, but they were ruthless in pursuit of their goal."

"In 1948, following the Arab rejection of the UN partition plan, they exploited the opportunity offered by an Arab military attack to extend the territory of their emerging state beyond the borders drawn by the UN cartographers and to carry out large-scale ethnic cleansing of Palestine. After the war, all the emphasis was on Aliyah or immigration, “the ingathering of the exiles”, nation-building and promoting the welfare of the Jewish population. The Arab minority inside Israel was kept under military government until 1966. During this period the settler-colonial character of the new state became obscured, but it did not fundamentally change."

I experienced the transformation of Israeli society over the past half-century at the personal level. In the mid-1960s I served loyally and proudly in the Israeli army because I felt at that time that the IDF was true to its name: it was the Israeli Defence Forces. After the 1967 war, its character gradually changed. It became the repressive police force of a brutal colonial power. I for one, therefore, do not regard Israel’s 75th birthday as a cause for celebration but rather as an occasion for critical reflection and soul-searching.