While central banks can influence the price of money, and hope this will help hit their inflation targets, the comforting certainty of their power is more hopeful myth than grounded reality. We should be wary of it.
Even without the global tech slide and the wider economic uncertainty, it was always unlikely that this year could match 2021 for funding. However, there are a number of issues impacting the Irish tech ecosystem right now that need to be addressed.
Graeme Souness and Jack Grealish had a very modern argument this week, but the player is living and playing in a different world to the one Souness once inhabited.
Investors are now buying UK gilts in a country with a large, widening current account deficit, barely credible fiscal metrics, a narrow tax base, and a volatile and rapidly weakening currency. The yield cost to the British Exchequer can only rise.
The response to the Commission on Taxation highlights yet again that this government, like the one before it, is not that interested in the sometimes difficult opinions of experts. This is a pity.
Social media companies controlled by private investors are bad enough. Controlled by an adversarial foreign power, they're much worse.
It’s unlikely that any budgetary intervention can address the short-term funding challenges that face Irish companies. Nonetheless, there are several other areas where government can, and should intervene to improve the environment.
Do I think Neumann is sleazy and destroys value at any given opportunity? Yup. Do I think Flow is potentially a great deal for Andreessen Horowitz? Also, yes. The discrepancy between my feelings for both of these questions boils down to the changing nature of venture capital dynamics.
Yvon Chouinard's decision sets a new basis by which a lot of corporate decision-making can now be viewed. What it means is that no possible outcome, no proposal made in a senior executive meeting, can again be dismissed as impractical or undeliverable.
The cost-of-living crisis is set against the backdrop of major economic uncertainty. At exactly the same time that companies are seeking to curb costs, staff are dealing with bigger bills and lower purchasing power.
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