For any naïve fool who may have believed that this year’s general election might be characterised by economic and fiscal prudence, these are indeed worrying times.

China’s ruling Communist Party has decided to abolish the country’s one-child policy and allow all couples to have two children.

Businesses in Cork are as confident as they have been at any stage in the last six years, but are increasingly unsure of the impact of government policy on stabilising the economy.

The lack of a coherent cyber security governance policy across the globe may be putting companies at greater risk of attack and jeopardising economic growth.

Amnesty International has urged world leaders to radically overhaul refugee policies and create a comprehensive global strategy to deal with the crisis, describing it as the worst emergency of its kind since the Second World War.

A delegation from the Oireachtas Justice Committee has travelled to Lisbon in Portugal to review drug prevention strategies there.

Government intervention on standard variable-rate mortgages is a middle-class plea bargain that contradicts Central Bank policy on curtailing credit, a leading analyst has claimed.

For those who study economics, at any level, one of the first things you learn about are the four factors of production: Land, labour, capital, and enterprise, writes Jim Power.

One of the biggest mistakes policymakers made after 2000 was to disregard the notion that Ireland is, first and foremost, an exporting nation that would never have a domestic market of sufficient size to sustain itself.

The issue of fracking will have to be addressed sooner or later.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has outlined his government’s final legislative programme before next year’s election, with bills promised to change pension rules and make fracking easier.

The ECB is preparing multiple measures against too-low inflation that could be used as soon as next month, policymakers said.

SMEs have become more dissatisfied with the Government since the turn of the year, with many citing the abandonment of annual lending targets for the pillar banks and a perceived failure to address rising business costs as the main reasons.

THE image of Frank Flannery stalking the corridors of Leinster House wandering in and out of ministers’ offices, having a word in their ear, is one that in many ways defines the problem of lobbying in Irish society.