There is an idea abroad. It is the idea that the Irish people are inveterately thick; incapable of rational choice or decision making. Saying that people are too stupid to understand something is the first refuge of the terminally technocratic when faced with dissent. More than that, considering the people “too stupid” for real change reveals one's own unwillingness to be self-critical and constructive about failure as well as revealing an ironic disdain for others, argues Angela Nagle.

In the first of a two-part series, Aidan Regan traces a history of neoliberalism, and shows why its supremacy as explanans for all economic activity is based neither on the rigour of its methods or the predictive power of its hypotheses, but on a simple moral argument about the superiority of the individual over the collective; the private over public.

We are constantly reassured that there is immense talent and creativity in the country. What a gift, then, when an elite Brains Trust bands together to put Ireland First, relatively speaking. Mary Gilmartin examines the anatomy of yet another proposal for national management.

Remaking the country in one’s image, or at least in ways that fit snugly with one’s interests, is all the rage among Ireland’s golfing cosmopolitan elite. On the day when Ed Walsh called for the implementation of economic ‘martial law’, Patrick Barry examines Dermot Desmond’s drive to become Ireland’s leading political moustache.

Dermot Desmond has jetted in for the weekend to join the chorus of voices calling for political reform. Jason Walsh examines several branches of the new reformation, and argues that what they have in common is distrust of the electorate.

Remember when Ireland was but a straw blown about and broken by the ill winds of global collapse? When it was Lehman Brothers wot did it? As the austerity agenda becomes more deeply embedded as the touchstone of Irish political realism, any sustained analysis of what the global capitalist crisis actually meant for Ireland recedes. Patricia K Wood examines the shrinking geography of crisis and conceivable responses.

A weekly round-up of what the CrisisJammers have been reading, watching and listening to.

Ready for Victory Celebration!

Where: The Met Bar, Clifton Court, Eden Quay

When: Sunday 20 February 5-10pm

Vigil against the continuing US military use of Shannon Airport

Where: GPO Dublin

When: Wednesday, 23 February, 4-6pm.

Union density in the Irish private sector stands at 20 per cent. If the Sindo and its readers had their way, it would stand at zero.

A weekly round-up of what the CrisisJammers have been reading, watching and listening to.

Circumlimina - Dublin in 2021

LRB/Benjamin Kunkel - How Much is Too Much?

Real World Economics Review/Anatole Kaletsky - Goodbye Homo Economicus