Family Guy and Simpsons animator Lucas Grey’s concise and superbly edited illustration of a section of Barack Obama’s speech at the 2012 Associated Press Luncheon in which POTUS rips the notion of ‘trickle down’ economics a new one.

It’s very good.

dailykos/whyobamanow

The government has said it is working on a strategy with the European Union to exit Ireland’s rescue programme at the end of next year without a second bailout.

Mr Noonan said he was very confident Ireland would exit the programme by the end of next year “in all circumstances”, irrespective of getting relief on the historic cost of bank recapitalisation.

Mr Howlin pointed out that Ireland had drawn down 80 per cent of the €67 billion loan from the troika and had fulfilled 160 conditions.

“We are the most successful programme country. We have hit all the targets,” he said.

Separately, a highranking member of Germany’s central bank warned against using Europe’s nascent banking union to deal with “past sins”. Andreas Dombret, a Bundesbank executive director, argued in an interview with The Irish Times against the ESM fund taking on legacy banking assets. He insisted he was not trampling over Irish hopes for debt relief but said people should be “particularly realistic” about what was doable or not.

Oh.

Government confident of bailout exit next year (Harry McGee, Arthur Beesley, Irish Times)

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

Oh.

Greg Rooney writes:

A lesson in branding from Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp. Bring your mics along, record nothing but throw them on the table anyways and the pics will get in the paper. Not made half obvious by the fact they’re all using the same mic stand. As a radio presenter with Near FM the first thing I noticed was there’s no cable going into 98, Newstalk, and Spin (Fm104 and tv3 are wireless mics hence them being thicker). What the point? [Picture is from James Crombie at Inpho photography].

Fair enough.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald (bottom centre left) with members of the Joint Committee on Health and Children: (back from left) Billy Kelleher, Peter Fitzpatrick, Jerry Buttimer, Robert Dowds, Ciara Conway and Seamus Healy with (bottom from left) Catherine Byrne, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Robert Troy, Mary Mitchell O’Connor and Jillian Van Turnhout.

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

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