The global economic and financial environment has been wracked by great turmoil in recent years. The seemingly boundless confidence of investors and policy-makers, which was such a feature from the end of the Cold War until the onset of the global financial crisis, has given way to much confusion, disillusionment and soul-searching. Many of the old certainties are now open to debate, and the need for opinions that question the conventional has rarely seemed as important.

Since John Looby’s first piece in The Sunday Times nearly two years ago, he tackled the topics that I believe Irish savers and investors have been grappling with during this period of often frightening upheaval.

This NuBook brings together his 28 opinion pieces published between October 2010 and July 2012. From assessing the challenges of the Irish predicament to the machinations of the Euro-zone crisis, or the difficulties of asset valuation to the thinking of some of the great investors, a broad range of hopefully provocative opinions have been brought together in a single volume.

All of the proceeds from this NuBook will go to NUIM Barnhall RFC – a community-based rugby club based between Leixlip and Celbridge in Co. Kildare.