FORMER US President Bill Clinton has identified a priority for the Irish economy that is not shared by the vast bulk of our elected politicians, or indeed many citizens of this State.

TWO years after its first outing, the Irish Global Economic Forum returns today, this time to Dublin Castle and not to Farmleigh, where it was held amid much fanfare in September 2009 by the previous government.

IT’S rare that the opening of a corporate office can be regarded as really good news.

The economy is a mess, the world is teetering on the verge of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929 and we’re arguing about who should be president. When are we going to get some sense?

HONESTLY now, how many people could remember fully and explain properly the circumstances in which Senator David Norris withdrew from his campaign to secure a nomination to contest next month’s Presidential election, before all of the returned publicity of recent days?

DERMOT McCARTHY is around long enough to know that this week’s controversy about the extraordinary pension and pay-off he received in July will pass.

CAN you imagine the ructions there would be now had our Government succeeded in getting the being deposed Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gadafi to invest in the rescue of our banks late last year?

A MAN I know who is well versed in financial matters, being a very senior and successful figure in Irish business, received a phone call recently from his bank, inquiring as to his financial well-being.

ON the first day of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s visit to Ireland they had lunch at Áras an Uachtarain, invited by President Mary McAleese as part of a small group that included Michael Ó Muircheartaigh, the GAA commentator.

IT’S hard to get excited about the increasingly odious English Premier League soccer competition that begins this weekend, rioting and police response permitting.