Central Bank jobs warning, Biden corporate tax push and a tribute to Ann Riordan

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

US president Joe Biden boards Air Force One en route to giving a big economic speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. Photograph: Jim Watson / AFP
US president Joe Biden boards Air Force One en route to giving a big economic speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. Photograph: Jim Watson / AFP

The Central Bank's outlook for the labour market post-Covid is dismal by any standards: unemployment is expected to remain at elevated levels even after restrictions have been eased and up to 100,000 will have permanently lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.

US president Joe Biden's push for a "global minimum" corporate tax rate of 21 per cent does not bode well for the Republic's long promotion of its 12.5 per cent rate and its days as an investment calling card look increasingly numbered, Cliff Taylor writes.

Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs is seeking to sell a portfolio non-performing Irish mortgages attached to 1,000 properties, taking advantage of a window in the market ahead of what will likely be a busy period for problem-loan sales by banks later this year. Joe Brennan reports.

Shoppers are being warned to take extra precautions in the run up to the Easter weekend as new figures from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland show online payment fraud is on the rise. In the first half of 2020, there were more than 143,000 fake card transactions, Ciara O'Brien reports.

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"The planet is screaming at us," US climate envoy and former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry told the International Energy Agency summit, as he advocated for greater collective action to achieve net-zero emissions. Kevin O'Sullivan reports.

Our Cantillon column scans an eye over much-hyped Deliveroo, which invited customers who logged onto its app to buy shares in the company ahead of its stock market debut... only for its listing in London on Wednesday to quickly turn cold.

In this week's tech review, Ciara O'Brien writes that she doesn't really need Garmin's newest smartwatch, the Garmin Lily, to tell her she could do with time out and maybe the odd yoga session. But it's nice that someone notices...

And in her Net Results column, Karlin Lillington reflects on the legacy of Ann Riordan, the first general manager of Microsoft in Ireland, who has died aged 73. Looking back over her own career as a woman covering technology, she writes that seeing Riordan in that role was a pivotal moment that proved women could be at the tech table too.

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Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery is an Irish Times journalist writing about media, advertising and other business topics