Category: Finance

Dublin, 9 December 2025 — Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has confirmed the release of almost €86 million in Eco-Scheme balancing payments, bringing total 2025 Eco-Scheme support to nearly €288 million since payments first commenced in October. According to the Department, 112,610 farmers are now in receipt of Eco-Scheme funding, which […]

What’s the point of monetary policy? For most of us, the main impact tends to be how much we have to pay to borrow to buy a house or car. But for the Federal Reserve, the purpose of its monetary policy is mandated by Congress. This is widely known as the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate: […]

Health insurance premiums in the U.S. significantly increased between 1999 and 2024, outpacing the rate of worker earnings by three times, according to our newly published research in the journal JAMA Network Open. Premiums can rise if the costs of the medical services they cover increase. Using consumer price indices for the main components of […]

Ireland has approved a record €159 million in funding under the latest round of the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF), marking one of the State’s most significant investments in next‑generation research and commercial innovation. The announcement follows the approval of seven additional projects worth €39 million, bringing the total number of funded initiatives under Call […]

When it comes to major U.S. industries, three tends to be the magic number. Historically, auto manufacturing was long dominated by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors – the so-called “Big Three,” which at one point controlled over 60% of the U.S. auto market. A dominant trio shows up elsewhere, too, in everything from the U.S. […]

Abuja — 5 December 2025 — The United Kingdom has launched two major economic reform programmes worth £12.4 million, aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s macroeconomic stability, fiscal resilience and long‑term growth prospects. The initiatives were unveiled at the British High Commissioner’s residence in Abuja, underscoring renewed UK support for Nigeria’s reform agenda. The programmes — the […]

Picture this: You’re looking to buy a place to live, and you have two options. Option A is a beautiful home in California near good schools and job opportunities. But it goes for nearly a million dollars – the median California home sells for US$906,500 – and you’d be paying a mortgage that’s risen 82% […]

In early 2022, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Social Policy, Kostiantyn Koshelenko, was focused on a multi-year project to modernize how his country delivered government support to citizens. The planned Unified Information System of the Social Sphere (UISSS) would consolidate 15 separate databases into one platform, laying groundwork to create a more harmonized user experience. Then […]

On the Bonthe Sherbro River estuary of Sierra Leone, the air is filled with the scent of saltwater, fish, and woodsmoke. For the people who live here, daily life revolves around the rhythms of the estuary, and many have built their livelihoods around the resources of the sea and land. However, intensive harvesting of mangrove […]

Imagine going from having a book club with your co-workers to seeing them only on a Signal chat where every member has to be vetted – and the main conversation topic is when you might lose your job. That’s what it was like for workers at one federal agency earlier this year. “I’d never seen […]