Dr Esmond Birnie: There may be some extra money for us, but UK-EU trade deal remains up in air

In terms of the funding for public expenditure in Northern Ireland, the general election result could turn out something of an early Christmas present.

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Dr Esmond Birnie: Why harsh diagnosis is needed to cure the Northern Ireland economy

At the risk of spoiling the Christmas office lunches, let's ask: "What's wrong with the Northern Ireland economy?"

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Dr Esmond Birnie: The uncosted spending plans of Northern Ireland parties

Quite rightly there has been a lot of emphasis in this election regarding the extent to which the spending plans of the two largest GB parties do not add up.

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Gallery

Dr Esmond Birnie: Always deja-vu when it comes to UK's relations with the European Union

Well, this time I could obviously have written about the UK Government's latest Brexit plan. The problem is that the plan could have changed massively by the time this article is published! Instead, let's go back a little in history.

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Esmond Birnie: A report worth considering, but in the end it’ll take two to tango

German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to produce an alternative to the border backstop in 30 days. His response was Wir Schaffen Das (We can do it).

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State may intervene but nationalisation is likely off the cards

It clearly matters to the current workforce of about 130 people that the Harland and Wolff shipyard could be about to close its gates for good.

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Government may be wary of bailout for coachworks

In its most recent company accounts, lodged in September 2018 for 2017, Wrightbus said they had delivered a "solid performance" and that they were "industry leaders" in clean technology for buses. Now, however, a substantial loss has been indicated for this year.

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Economy Watch: Why the connection with US is no longer quite so crucial to Northern Ireland

Independence Day on Thursday - as well as President Trump's recent visit to the UK and the Republic of Ireland - prompt the question of how important is the US to the Northern Ireland economy.

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Economy Watch: A lack of competitiveness means we can't stand still

Brexit notwithstanding, a lack of competitiveness remains our greatest single challenge. Greater competitiveness would increase sales of goods and services while also raising wages and living standards. Competitiveness is very closely related to a high and rising level of productivity.

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Esmond Birnie: Bombardier move means turbulent times lie ahead but it's not all doom for Belfast workforce

Many people may feel the recent Bombardier experience in Northern Ireland has been death by a thousand cuts. First, redundancies, then the sale of control of the C Series to Airbus, and now Bombardier's announcement that it wants to sell its operations.

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Economy Watch: Bridge to Scotland might have to stay as a pie in the sky

In recent years a Scandinavian crime drama called The Bridge has gained some popularity on British TV. We have also seen a small scale political drama relating to suggestions that serious consideration be given to building a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland.

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Economy Watch: Complacency could put two centuries of progress at risk

You may be fearful about the future for the world and UK economies, but some commentators have been highlighting data showing that life has been getting better for most people.

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Northern Ireland's falling sales to GB consistent with manufacturing woes

Every year, a couple of weeks before Christmas, the UK statistics body - the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - publishes the latest figures on the size of the whole economy as well as the size of the regional economies.

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Esmond Birnie: History shows that we must be cautious about Brexit forecasts

All economic forecasts should be handled with care. They are not really predictions about the future. Instead, they are a view of what could happen if certain assumptions are assumed apply.

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Gallery

Forecasting three possible scenarios to future of Brexit

The American sports commentator Yogi Berra once said prediction is difficult because it is about the future. Bearing that in mind, and the perceived failures of economic forecasters, here are considerations relating to three possible scenarios:

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Beware the risks of contagion leading to next big downturn

The First World War is often said to have begun because of a chain of events which started with the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on the streets of Sarajevo in June 2014.

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We may have to accept that some of our funding is now gone for good

Before we become too gloomy, economies can sometimes grow in spite of chaotic politics. Italy in the 1950s had many world-beating companies despite short-lived governments and corruption. South Korea has developed leading steel, car and electronics companies notwithstanding a divided peninsula. Israel's high technology firms are renowned even given the constant threat of war.

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Minimum pricing on alcohol could be a healthy move for Northern Ireland

In May Scotland introduced a legal minimum price for alcohol of 50p per unit. That implied a major escalation in the prices of what had previously been some of the cheapest drinks: a £1.99 bottle of cider rose to £5.

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Opinion

Time rapidly running out on how long we can function without our elected decision-makers

Since the Stormont Executive ceased to operate in January 2017 the sky has not fallen in. The lights are still on. That does not mean that the lack of a fully functioning government has had no bad effects. With no elected ministers, senior officials have acted as reluctant substitutes.

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How to ensure the NHS is sustainable for another 70 years

Aneurin Bevan's creation, the NHS, is 70 this week and it remains very popular. Former Chancellor Nigel Lawson said it was the closest thing we now had to a national religion. It was not for nothing that Danny Boyle included a celebration of the service in his choreography for the London 2012 Olympics opening event.

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Dr Esmond Birnie: What can Karl Marx teach us 200 years on from his birth?

About 30 years ago, I was studying the productivity of factories in Northern Ireland and Germany. In a factory in Northern Ireland, the manager told me he liked to employ husbands and wives together because that gave him much more scope to control their work effort - that attitude would not have been out of place amongst some of the examples Karl Marx used in his enormous book, Capital.

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'Deal proved more important to the politics of Northern Ireland than to the economics'

Although there are many signs that most people in Northern Ireland are better off than they were 20 years ago this does not prove that the Agreement itself caused greater prosperity.

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Gallery

Years since Agreement's signing show the need for bolder policy on economy

Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive. But to be young was very heaven. I do not think many would use those words by Wordsworth about the French Revolution to describe how they felt back in 1998. However, the Belfast Agreement may have produced a certain level of optimism about the future prospects for the economy. And 20 years on, the agreement has obviously been very important in political terms - but how much difference has it made to Northern Ireland's economic life? A number of points can be made:

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Political courage needed to make some hard decisions in Northern Ireland

Yet more job losses. Yesterday's announcement regarding administration of parts of the Lagan Construction Group could place up to 200 jobs at risk.

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Why our peek behind the budgetary veil was far from pleasant viewing

Some people have been talking about building a bridge from Northern Ireland to Scotland, but is there anything we can learn from the recent Scottish Draft Budget 2018-19 in comparison to the Department of Finance's Briefing Paper on Northern Ireland Budgetary Outlook 2018-20?

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Forget the football, Switzerland's fancy footwork in dealing with EU may offer Northern Ireland some helpful lessons

Switzerland is going to the World Cup in 2018 and Northern Ireland is not. Switzerland's population is four and a half times that of Northern Ireland and yet in November 2017 it had a FIFA world football ranking of eighth and was the twentieth largest economy in the world.

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Would experts do a better job of governing Northern Ireland than our politicians up at Stormont?

Who would you rather made difficult decisions about your future - politicians or 'experts'? A number of arguments have been used to justify a transfer of decision-making power away from elected politicians towards experts or technocrats.

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For: A necessary move given the climate

The decision by the Monetary Policy Committee is the first rise in interest rates for about a decade. We should probably view this rise as a first instalment only as we move to a "new normal".

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A decade after the start of the worldwide banking crisis, what lessons if any have we learned?

In the middle of the summer season you may have missed the 10th anniversary of the start of what would become the banking crisis. August 2007 is identified as the point when it became clear that something was fundamentally wrong in the Western banking system.

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We must consider long-term issues in handling deficit

The winds of change are definitely blowing through UK economic policy-making. In the March 2017 Budget the Chancellor Philip Hammond had already indicated that he was taking a more relaxed view as to how long it might take to re-balance the UK budget deficit.