Jack’s Weblog

‘Time Magazine’ has always been at the top of the current events pile of publications. As I was sifting through their website the other day, I found their Business section (http://www.time.com/time/global_business/ireland). But what was interesting about this section was that Ireland was a listed country on its ‘drop down’ menu (along with 9 others including China, the US, UK, India, Brazil, Japan, etc). It struck me that Ireland was put on a par with this other countries in the business sense. The site itself is nicely designed; it has numerous links on the left-hand side that involve Irish business news. It also has maps, weather, a stock ticker among other elements. There is also a ‘comparative chart’ on the bottom-right of the page; this is where you can take Ireland (or other countries) & compare them in a clear graphic way to eachother. The chart compares in terms of: Access to financing Restrictive labor regulations Foreign currency regulations Inadequate supply of infrastructure Inefficient government bureaucracy Inadequately educated workforce Poor work ethic in national labor force Policy instability Government instability/coups Crime and theft Corruption Tax regulations Tax rates Inflation It is based on information from the World Economic Forum. I was pleasently surprised by this website & will be visiting it regularly.