Facebook was in touch the other day. “Help your friends recognise you,” they wrote. “Add a profile picture.”

My instinctive reaction was: Why? So it could be added to the pile of data on me and others that is left out there for the unscrupulous to access?

Of course, my picture sits with this piece on the website, so that particular horse has probably bolted. However, we still work generally …

Consumer spending represents over 60% of the economy here and there are signs of recovery after seven years of decline in a row.

This is according to the Marketing Institute of Ireland and UCD’s Smurfit Graduate Business School.

Their consumer market monitor, which draws on a range of data from the CSO, the Central Bank, the ECB and the European Commission, puts consumer confidence at its highest level in seven …

Business newswire Bloomberg reported yesterday that Paddy Power is offering odds of 9-to-4 that house prices will increase by between 15pc and 19.9pc this year.

A €4 winning bet would return a €9 profit, the report helpfully points out to the bond traders and banking analysts who subscribe to the service.

You know you’re in trouble once the novelty bets are being laid. 
Our home-grown experts have been quick to …

In his statement yesterday, ECB President Mario Draghi showed little evidence of a change on policy.

What he ought to have said the council has had second thoughts: The changes in June were too timid, and since then the situation has only worsened.

Inflation in the euro zone is still falling. In the year to July, it was 0.4pc – yet again, less than private forecasters were expecting, and the …

Belgian Wim Verbraeken has also cast doubts on claims that that houses in Dublin in particular are “undervalued.”

Mr Wim Verbraeken, who took over as chief executive of KBC Bank Ireland in November last year, said a lack of homes available to buy in Dublin in particular is hitting the market, including creating a gap between the number of new home loans approved by the bank and actual number drawn …