Cowen toasted as Wall Street 'bull'
Evening Herald
The Taoiseach on the floor of the New York stock exchange during his trip in July.
Thursday August 07 2008
Taoiseach Brian Cowen has been credited with a Wall Street rally.
The head of the New York Stock Exchange traces the emergence of something resembling a minor bull market back to Mr Cowen's appearance there last month.
Now his closest advisors can only hope the Taoiseach can do the same here.
Today it emerged that the recent puzzling improvement on Wall Street is bineg attributed by its chief executive to "the luck of the Irish Taoiseach".
In an email circulated to staff he wrote about Mr Cowen's visit when he rang the opening bell to begin the morning's trade.
Duncan Niederauer, chief executive of NYSE Euronext, related a curious tale to staff. Just as Mr Cowen was about to ring the opening bell he leaned over and whispered that they could do with a little Irish luck in the place."
Given the performance of the market the following few days, I hope the prime minister comes back more frequently," he said.
Mr Cowen will no doubt put some effort into repeating this success on home turf.
As he rings the opening bell at the Tullamore Show this week, our leader might bring some luck to stock markets of another kind.
But it still remained pretty grim here today with the Taoiseach being criticised in some quarters for remaining on holiday despite the breakdown of pay talks.
Advisors insist Mr Cowen is on a home holiday however and available as the need arises.
