Growth depends on disposable income [Independent.ie]
- Published: 24 January 2010
Since seeing the cult film Withnail and I, I've had a theory about why John FitzGerald of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) is Ireland's best economic forecaster. In one scene, Danny, a man with shoulder-length hair, explains his coiffure to a friend: "Hairs are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly into the brain."
Meet John FitzGerald and the first thing you'll notice is a magnificent mane of hair. If my theory is right, this is his Samson-like secret to great forecasting. A cash register in the land cannot ring without an electro-magnetic impulse being instantaneously transmitted along the appropriate follicle. From every corner of Ireland's macro economy, every second of the day, armies of signals are assembled into macroeconomic forecasts in this man's mighty brain.
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