Belfast Blogs.com

Acccording to the ever-gorgeous Government Press Office, our glorious leader is off to Noo Yawk later this month:The Taoiseach, Mr. Brian Cowen TD, will undertake his first official trip to the United States next month [sic].He will visit New York for a series of engagements with key political and business leaders, as well as representatives of the Irish community.The highlights of the visit are expected to be a visit to the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday July 16th and a keynote address at the Wall Street 50 Dinner on Thursday 17th July.In his meetings, the Taoiseach is expected to discuss the global economicsituation, how to further develop the relationship between Ireland andAmerica and the issue of immigration reform and the undocumented Irish inthe US.So Cowen will continue the...

... unless you're the worms of San Francisco, of course, who will soon be feasting on the father of monetarism, Milton Friedman, who died today.If that sounds a bit harsh on someone who was esteemed as the father of the free market and a Nobel laureate to boot, then consider his legacy - Reagan, Thatcher, the massive growth in the wealth disparity between rich and poor over the past three decades, and of course bubble markets such as our own property boom.Now, obviously Milt did not intend all of that to occur when he first championed monetarism. And in later years, he was an outspoken advocate of equality of access in education.But there is little doubt in my mind that, visionary though Friedman may have been, his theorems have proved incredibly destructive in the hands of lesser minds...