Irish Economy: Obama’s call for a government that “works”; Kennedy says value added key metric for measuring impact of services exports
Jan 24th, 2009 | By Finfacts Ireland Business & Finance Portal | Category: News worldwide
Irish Economy: Twenty-eight years ago, Ronald Reagan declared in his first inaugural address that "government is not the solution to our problem." Last Tuesday, Barack Obama said: "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works." Many Irish people likely nodded approval to this sentiment at a time of peril, when Ireland's political leader, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen, has been frozen in indecision, since the onset of economic meltdown in 2008. Obama said America, had "chosen hope over fear" and while Ireland can also look to hope in the increasingly important services exports' sector, Professor Robert E. Kennedy of the University of Michigan, warns that value added is a key metric for assessing the impact of services exports.