Newsweek ranks Brian Cowen among world's best leaders

The Agogo · 17-08-2010 12:44AM

The Highwayman wrote: »

Time magazine made Hitler 'Man of the year'

Don't forget Putin

The Agogo · 17-08-2010 12:45AM

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Well then we need to show them it's not acceptable by not even giving them a single vote.

Unfortunately, there are too many idiots for this to happen

Plebs · 17-08-2010 12:45AM

The international bankers said jump and Cowen asked how high. He, his mates and the FF party will be rewarded with some crumbs.

Cowen, Taoiseach and former Minister for Finance, is a traitor who gave up this country's economic sovereignty. He's a thick lump of **** who is easily manipulated and knows how to get simple minded GAA supporters and farmers to vote for him.

aDeener · 17-08-2010 12:48AM

Plebs wrote: »

The international bankers said jump and Cowen asked how high. He, his mates and the FF party will be rewarded with some crumbs.

Cowen, Taoiseach and former Minister for Finance, is a traitor who gave up this country's economic sovereignty. He's a thick lump of **** who is easily manipulated and knows how to get simple minded GAA supporters and farmers to vote for him.

what an apt username :rolleyes:

sesna · 17-08-2010 12:50AM

Plebs wrote: »

The international bankers said jump and Cowen asked how high. He, his mates and the FF party will be rewarded with some crumbs.

Cowen, Taoiseach and former Minister for Finance, is a traitor who gave up this country's economic sovereignty. He's a thick lump of **** who is easily manipulated and knows how to get simple minded GAA supporters and farmers to vote for him.

The man is an intellectual powerhouse, master of his brief and economics genius.
He and St Lenihan will guide us out of this mess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8F-9nmZ5I

amacachi · 17-08-2010 12:51AM

Terry wrote: »

Nobody wants to hear it, but PAYE needs to rise.
Slate me all you want, but most of you will only be down about a tenner a week. It needs to be done.

No! The government should supply all services but I shouldn't have to pay for it, no-one should! There should be no money, we should just barter and ****.

Blarney92 · 17-08-2010 12:56AM

Deleted User wrote: »

It's true though.. We're getting some international praise for taking corrective action over a year earlier than most places. We can't see it but we'd be more fooked without it.

We're getting a lot of international praise. In fact chatting to some guys at work today who reckoned we'd have defaulted if we hadn't put in such tough policies when we did.

Still along way to go but if our banking sector can recover then we should be ok.

Think the government made the right calls overall and while no doubt painful are absolutely critical for our financial survival

My name is URL · 17-08-2010 01:00AM

If the Cookie Monster was in charge and decided to cut down on his cookie consumption the rest of the world would see it as a success story.. that's how bad Ireland seems on an international scale atm

Cowen does get a hard time, but quantifying the drop in public support to not being able to understand the current situation is asinine

dsmythy · 17-08-2010 01:02AM

The Highwayman wrote: »

Time magazine made Hitler 'Man of the year'

The award isn't 'best man of the year' it's the 'most influential man of the year'.

starbelgrade · 17-08-2010 01:06AM

Where did Bono come on the list?

mikemac · 17-08-2010 01:17AM

Terry wrote: »

Nobody wants to hear it, but PAYE needs to rise.
Slate me all you want, but most of you will only be down about a tenner a week. It needs to be done.

Maybe.
In some places like my own you have the option of overtime.
But with higher tax, PRSI and levies a lot turn it down.

Strangely, some straddle the cut-off between lower rate and higher rate of PAYE
So some months you can work longer hours and end up with little or nothing extra.

So why even bother is what people say

Diminishing returns I believe it's called

Liam Byrne · 17-08-2010 01:20AM

Blarney92 wrote: »

Think the government made the right calls overall and while no doubt painful are absolutely critical for our financial survival

Those "right calls" started far, far too late, though......they should have started when Ahern told the so-called pessimists to, well......

And they even the "right calls" wrong, as proven by the banking guarantee report.

And NAMA is a massive gamble, while Anglo, well......the less said about that cesspit the better; it definitely doesn't fall into the "critical" description, unless we're talking about its medical condition.

Terry · 17-08-2010 01:30AM

feelingstressed wrote: »

Maybe.
In some places like my own you have the option of overtime.
But with higher tax, PRSI and levies a lot turn it down.

Strangely, some straddle the cut-off between lower rate and higher rate of PAYE
So some months you can work longer hours and end up with little or nothing extra.
So why even bother is what people say

Diminishing returns I believe it's called

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that an increase in PAYE is going to solve everything. I know that this alone will not solve anything. However, it's a start.

The entire system needs to be reformed, but that is never going to happen due to the apathy of the Irish people.
We really should be storming the Dail, but we're afraid of what our neighbours will say if they see us on the telly.

More to come in my upcoming youtube series "Two drunk dudes trying to fix the world". That's just a working title for now.

mikom · 17-08-2010 01:32AM

Newsweak.
That is all.

some_dose · 17-08-2010 01:34AM

LookingFor wrote: »

This will go down well locally, I'm sure...

He's placed in their top 10 'head of the class' world leaders, labelling him 'The Fiscal Taskmaster'.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/16/go-to-the-head-of-the-class/the-fiscal-taskmaster-brian-cowen.html

Elsewhere, they rank Ireland as the 17th best place in the world to live.

http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/the-world-s-best-countries.html

We are also the 6th most 'peaceful' country in the world

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi-data/#/2010/scor/GB

mikemac · 17-08-2010 01:38AM

The Highwayman wrote: »

Time magazine made Hitler 'Man of the year'

Everyone misunderstand this.

The criteria is:

profiles a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year.

And in 1938, Hitler was certainly doing this.
Such as the Munich Conference where all the main European countries attended. So definitely influential

heyjude · 17-08-2010 01:53AM

Terry wrote: »

Nobody wants to hear it, but PAYE needs to rise.
Slate me all you want, but most of you will only be down about a tenner a week. It needs to be done.

PAYE to rise by a tenner a week, an unpleasant but manageable problem, the real problem is that then they'll say Property Tax, oh lets say a tenner a week and Water Charges, a tenner a week sounds reasonable. So now a household with one PAYE worker is looking at 30 Euro a week(1560 Euro a year) and then there's the other little stealth charges, levies etc that are sure to be introduced(such as tolls on national roads, motor tax increases, 'green taxes' on fuel etc), not to mention price increases for profitable semi state companies. A PAYE increase would only be the tip of the iceberg.

It may be only drip drip here and there and a tenner a week may not sound too much, but when its all added up the total household cost could be well into four figures.

Plebs · 17-08-2010 01:59AM

heyjude wrote: »

PAYE to rise by a tenner a week, an unpleasant but manageable problem, the real problem is that then they'll say Property Tax, oh lets say a tenner a week and Water Charges, a tenner a week sounds reasonable. So now a household with one PAYE worker is looking at 30 Euro a week(1560 Euro a year) and then there's the other little stealth charges, levies etc that are sure to be introduced(such as tolls on national roads, motor tax increases, 'green taxes' on fuel etc), not to mention price increases for profitable semi state companies. A PAYE increase would only be the tip of the iceberg.

It may be only drip drip here and there and a tenner a week may not sound too much, but when its all added up the total household cost could be well into four figures.

Dole for single people should be cut 20% this year and a further 20% next year. No diminishing returns problem there. It's far too generous.

KnifeWRENCH · 17-08-2010 02:08AM

LukeQuietus wrote: »

The Greeks (who we're worse off than) went out on the streets and you know what they chanted? "We're not Irish, we won't take it!" And good for them.

Yeah, rioting worked real well for them; let's all go out and fix stuff by trashing the place and looting what we can. Good for them indeed.

I don't rate Cowen as a leader, and almost certainly won't vote FF in 2012, but I can't really disagree with what Newsweek say about him; he knows the harsh measures that the Government have taken are unpopular but if it will fix the mess we're in (albeit, one that he and Bertie Ahern are mostly responsible for) I'll be grateful for it. And Lenihan is the one FF minister that's actually doing a good job imo.

NoHornJan · 17-08-2010 02:15AM

Brain Cowan...

Smartest jewman in the world...

Liveit · 17-08-2010 02:15AM

sesna wrote: »

24 billion into Anglo Irish Bank alone (all part of the corrective action), yet Saint Lenihan can do no wrong, Cowen is a genius - master of his brief. It's true, we lap up complete government bull$hit like the poster below.

Or mabye you have lapped up the irish media's bull$hit mabye?

Bad news sells as they say

A Changer · 17-08-2010 02:48AM

I'd be really careful about taking Irish media outlets, or any media outlet for that matter, with bowlfuls of salt. "Truth" is such a fickle thing, easily manipulated by the outlet to push an agenda. While I'll certainly be avoiding FF in the next elections, this indignant attitude many seem to have to the country's hardship is not becoming. That there has been any kind of economic turnaround is an absolute miracle considering how much debt we're in, how many American companies fled, and how reliant we were on construction. I think credit to Cowen is due - for contributing to the creation of a horrible situation, yet doing quite a lot to try and address it. This may have sown more hardship, yet our expenditure had to shrink, as we no longer have the means to support it.

Thanks, Brian Cowen. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. :pac:

Einhard · 17-08-2010 02:49AM

Giant Squid wrote: »

the word is newsweek. the synonym is propaganda

You think Newsweek run propaganda for the Irish government?! Right...

orourkeda · 17-08-2010 02:57AM

some_dose wrote: »

We are also the 6th most 'peaceful' country in the world

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi-data/#/2010/scor/GB

I'd say tourism in Iraq has experienced something of a slump recently.

Plebs · 17-08-2010 03:02AM

6a00d8341cca7b53ef01053678793c970c-500wi

Brian Cowen likes to eat alongside the fat cats and certainly knows how to keep the kiddies happy.

Einhard · 17-08-2010 03:03AM

Dudess wrote: »

Agreed he isn't totally to blame, Fianna Fáil voters and people who didn't vote are also. But not "we" as in all of us.

I think most of us are, even those who didn't vote for FF or didn't bother vote at all. The reason the economy is in such a terrible state is because we have consistently shown ourselves to be more concerned about short term self-interest, rather than long term good governance. There's a reason why the manifestos of the big three parties were so identical last time around, and that's because FG and Labour know as well as FF, that offering a sensible, practical manifesto, outlining the tough decisions that need to be made, will never win them any votes. It's far easier to bribe the electorate with goodies paid for with borrowed money, than actually confront them with the difficult, unpalatble actions needed to truly reform this country and put us on the path to long term, stable, economic growth. It's why Labour haven't come forward with any of their own proposals yet, and it's why the PDs ran to the centre do soon after their formation. It's why, in the next election, the parties will base their campaigns on what they'll give to the "ordinary voter", and we'll hear nothing about real, sustained reform. And it's why it's so bloody depressing sometimes living in this country.

Einhard · 17-08-2010 03:06AM

The Highwayman wrote: »

Time magazine made Hitler 'Man of the year'

That's because, contrary to popular misconception, it's not a based on popularity or on how "good" a person on, but on their impact on thw world around them. It would have been surprising if Hitler hadn't been named.

17-08-2010 08:50AM

sesna wrote: »

Corrective action which they are receiving praise for? You mean they cut social welfare, crippled us with taxes, cut essential frontline health services, punished the most vulnerable in society all so they could partially finance a ridiculous blanket bank guarantee which the banks themselves manipulated Lenihan into providing, by withholding information on their dire predicament until the last minute, and which most experts now agree was one of the worst financial decisions in the history of the state. Not to mention consecutive downgrading by all credit rating agencies and highest GDP debt ratio in the EU.

I suppose Nama is going to make a profit too.

Has anyone starved yet? Jesus Christ have a look at the Pakistan floods and try get some perspective on life. Without those cuts and the opening up of credit, we'd be more fuked.

I knew i'd get slated for what's a true statement but it makes me laugh to argue with people who've never even read an economics book.
And i'm being made redundant in two weeks after working in a place for two years. I'm leaving the country in September so yea, I know what recession is.

Liam Byrne · 17-08-2010 09:07AM

Einhard wrote: »

I think most of us are, even those who didn't vote for FF or didn't bother vote at all. The reason the economy is in such a terrible state is because we have consistently shown ourselves to be more concerned about short term self-interest, rather than long term good governance.

So what does that have to do with suggesting that - just as two examples - Dudess and myself have anything to do with it ?

I know I haven't, and given Dudess' reply, it appears that she doesn't either.

PeterIanStaker · 17-08-2010 10:12AM

Einhard wrote: »

You think Newsweek run propaganda for the Irish government?! Right...

No, the govt have their own tame hacks in the Indo/Sindo to shrilly and incoherently defend everything they do, without having to outsource the bullsh!t.

Newsweek ranks Brian Cowen among world's best leaders

Comments