With the summer lull now well behind us, global policymakers are refocusing on the key issues that are on at hand.

The past few years have been characterised by a widespread loosening of monetary policy in many countries to counteract very weak inflation and sluggish economic growth.

The nature of economics and the approach of many economists have changed subtly over the past decade.

There are some strange things going on in financial markets around the world at present. In Japan, they are thinking about issuing bonds from the government to finance infrastructure. That, in itself, is not unusual but the drop dead point is that these bonds will be purchased by the Japanese Central Bank on a non-redeemable basis. In plain language that means they need never be repaid. It is the best example I can find of so-called ‘helicopter money’ which is effectively free finance.

Energy efficiency and the adoption of related technology are two ways in which a farm business can improve its competitiveness and lower its carbon footprint.

The Dundalk FC faithful gathered in the bar of the club’s Oriel Park home last Friday morning.

The decision by An Bord Pleanála to grant approval for Apple to proceed with a large data centre in Co Galway is an important stepping stone in Ireland’s industrial economic strategy.

It is almost a year since the Government launched its capital plan covering 2016 to 2021. The plan received a broad if cautious welcome at the time, though the focus of attention soon switched to the budget.

If you are a foreign investor or a non-resident Irish citizen, buying property here is a no-brainer. This is not news.

Sterling’s slump since Britain voted to leave the EU continues to be a major conundrum for Ireland’s exporters.

Imagine you own a company. Let us call it, for convenience, Munster plc. This business has a lot of employees and operates across many different sectors like a large conglomerate.

Despite the political turmoil, the Zika virus, junk bond rating of its sovereign debt and its deepest recession in a century, Brazil still stands as one of the world’s largest economies – and one of the most important trading partners for Ireland in South America.

Two years ago, when we launched the Fair Mortgage Rates Campaign, Irish borrowers were paying 4.5% compared to an average Eurozone rate of 2.64% — a difference of 1.86%.

As expected, the Bank of England announced a 25 basis points cut in its bank rate to 0.25% from 0.50% following last week’s meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

In 2002, the notoriously evasive US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld made his famous observations on “known knowns”, “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns”.

As the Premier League season gets under way next weekend, Sky TV will once again assert its dominance across the sporting realm. Brushing aside the post-Brexit concerns dogging many other UK companies, Sky shares posted a 7% rise —their strongest increase in three years — on the back of significant revenue growth.

Despite the compelling economic recovery story that has been steadily building over the past couple of years, objective observers of the economy have recognised the health of the banking sector as an ongoing source of concern for Ireland.

An EU-wide stress test suggests that our banks are not in fact on top of their game as they would have us believe.

The July meeting of the US Federal Reserve last week concluded as expected without it making any changes to its current policy stance.

At the beginning of the year, it was blatantly obvious that 2016 was going to be an interesting and unpredictable year, and as we move past the halfway point, that is exactly how it has transpired.

A lack of ideas is a gloomy thing to behold in a tech leader.

Financial markets have moved in strange ways since Brexit but the most pronounced shift has been an advance in US equity valuations and a sharp decline in the exchange rate between sterling and the dollar.

Last week saw the July meeting of the ECB’s Governing Council conclude in line with market expectations — with no changes to monetary policy.

Geopolitical risks have intensified over the past month or so with Brexit, the terrorist attack in Nice, the shooting of police officers in a number of cities in the United States, the tragic shootings in Munich, and the failed military coup in Turkey.

In the harsh world of international business, the pressure to perform is unrelenting.