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Conan

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Have RTE lost the plot. On last night's debate covering the Irish economy, bank funding, soverign debt costs etc, RTE had an employee of a spread betting company as an expert panelist (Paul Sommerville of Delta Index). Can we now expect that in future economic debates that RTE will invite an odds setter from Ladbrokes or maybe Paddy Power?
Admittedly Mr. Sommerville was the evil of two lessers. Minister O'Cuiv was just as much out of his depth as Mr. Somerville was irresponsible.
The events of the last few years have certainly thrown up a collection of celebrity economic wannabes, never short of something controversial to say in front of the camera, on radio or in newspapers.
Whilst I would expect nothing less from Vincent Browne (Mr Somerville is a regular contributor) I had thought that RTE at least had some standards in selecting "expert" contributors.
 
Slightly off topic but similar.

SBP had a Your Money section last Sunday at the end of which was some commercial features including spread betting.

They did put a different colour on the pages though, presumably in case you left MABS and headed straight to lay some spreads and financially engineer your way out of trouble.
 
On a similar vein, there was a piece in the IT the other day about a solicitor who "had gambled client funds on stocks and shares". Is this an acknowledgement that what traditionally has been offered as an "investment" is really just a punt by another name.
 
Why not have an employee of a spread betting company on? Ask any investor in AIB, Bank of Ireland etc. If they had their money back, they would have been better off going to Paddy Power, Ladbrookes etc.

Come to think of it, why now should we have some 'experts' from the banking sector advising us what to do and (worse again) getting paid for their views?
 
Seen it but was more taken aback with the Minister's performance on the show. I thought he was absolutely shocking. He came across as clueless about the banking crisis and even in the section on 'working for dole', he bluffed his way through it without any details. At one stage he held up the Tuam Herald to prove how well the new scheme has been explained.
 
Howitzer said:
Paul Sommerville knows what he's talking about.
Click to expand...
+1.
O'Cuiv and his copy of the Tuam Herald to prove a point was an aboslute joke. I got the same feeling I do when watching an episode of The Office.
 
Howitzer said:
Paul Sommerville knows what he's talking about.
Click to expand...

I agree.

If the Government want to know why people are so angry, then they just have to look at the Ministers performance. The problem is that unless it is Brian Lenihan, the rest just seem clueless. Brian Cowan was the same on the news yesterday when he didn't even understand the difference between capitalisation of banks and funding of banks. To be fair to O'Cuiv, why was he sent to talk about Anglo? I don't even know what he is Minister of.
 
Sunny said:
To be fair to O'Cuiv, why was he sent to talk about Anglo? I don't even know what he is Minister of.
Click to expand...

He is minister for social protection, although you would find that hard to believe the way he spoke about the new 'work for dole' scheme on Prime Time. He was clueless.
Clown is useless. He refers to the rise in borrowing as 'normal ebbs and flows', totally dismissive of it. I won't pretend to fully understand it all, but he is leading the country and has no sense of how bad things are.

I'm even starting to think Lenihan is just a more convincing bluffer.
 

Well the explanations for the work for dole scheme was a disgrace. I don't usually agree with trade union leaders but even I had to take Jack O'Connors side on that one. The Minister didn't have a clue
 
Enda on the radio this morning was not much better. FG are not going to raise taxes, add new taxes or cut SW spending etc. So where is the money going to come from? Maybe the IMF will come in and do the job for him.
 
Sunny said:
Brian Cowan was the same on the news yesterday when he didn't even understand the difference between capitalisation of banks and funding of banks.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it be class, if the next time Mat Cooper has Biffo on the Last Word, he peppered him with a few economics/accountancy/finance 101 questions to see how he'd fare (as a minister for Finance).
 
This "work for dole" schemes is just softening people up for the coming inevitable cuts in social welfare.
 
sunrock said:
This "work for dole" schemes is just softening people up for the coming inevitable cuts in social welfare.
Click to expand...
Also could be a useful tool if one wanted to doctor the live register figures to ensure they don't officially exceed half a million.
 
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