Dramatic developments across Europe are giving a panel of experts much to discuss this weekend

TIMING IS everything and the organisers of the second annual Kilkenomics festival which continues today and tomorrow in Kilkenny could scarcely have been luckier with theirs.

One thing Ireland’s most well known and most well respected economists have not been short of as they have taken to the stage in venues across the city since the economics festival started on Wednesday has been material.

They have the Greek meltdown, Italy edging towards the IMF and the Government’s decision to repay more than €750 million to unnamed and unsecured bond holders, to name just three of the main talking points.

Never has economics been so central, which is why hundreds of people gathered in a the Ormonde Hotel last night to hear economists attempt to answer the question, “How do we avoid global recession?”

Chaired by David McWilliams, a panel made up of controversial broadcaster Max Keiser, financial commentator John Mauldin and Irish Timesjournalist Fintan O'Toole discussed whether the world was in danger of being dragged into a recession worse than that of the 1930s, how debt and indebtedness brought the world to this point and just how culpable are governments and the global financial system?

Mr Keiser said the chance of avoiding a depression was slim because what was needed ran contrary to human nature. He said people preferred to suffer long term gradual pain than short term but more severe pain.

“Europe should dump its bad debt now and rip the band aid off just like Iceland did. But many prefer the drip-feed of bailouts, which creates a slow gradual pain. Can we avoid a global recession? Only if we can avoid human nature.” He said strong leaders were needed to convince people to go against nature but expressed doubt that any leaders in the developed world had the strength of character to act with the necessary resolve.

He predicted that in the next three years there would be a return to the gold standard and there would be a global financial summit along the lines of the post-war Breton Woods summit where much of the sovereign debt which states could not pay would be written off.

He accused Minister for Finance Michael Noonan of a “brazen act of contempt for the people” to announce €3.8 billion worth of budgetary cuts in the same week the department announced it had “found” €3.6 billion which had disappeared from the system as a result of an accounting error. He said it showed a complete inability to track what was happening in the system and claimed that such an absence of transparency allowed bankers and traders to engage in “financial terrorism”.

Speaking about the default option, market analyst Vikas Seth said Greece would have to default and by denying that, politicians were “putting a band aid on a cancer patient.” He urged Ireland to act decisively. “Don’t let it stretch out for years. Don’t let it be a death by a thousand cuts.”

The festival also heard that the economic crisis could accelerate the growth of far-right movements across Europe.

Peter Antinioni from the London School of Economics said last night that unless the crisis was managed more effectively than to date, a wave of right-wing sentiment could sweep across the EU.

Among the topics up for discussion today and tomorrow at Kilkenomics are the rise of China, a debate on why people are “slaves” to the markets and a roundtable discussion about the prospects for the Irish property market.