The David McWilliams Podcast

Last week the New York Times took a swipe at Ireland by calling it a tax haven - which it most definitely is not. Using taxes is central to any nation's economic policy. A tax haven is understood to be a place where a company puts a brass plate up, has few if any employees and proceeds to wash money through this shell company. That is not what is happening in Ireland. We explore the transformation...

The world is changing and nowhere is that more apparent than in urban areas around the world. Today’s episode looks at the transformations happening in our podcast home of Dun Laoghaire and use it as a template to discuss what might happen around the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up here, in what used to be called the "1st World", the pandemic has focused economists' minds on what can be done to change our thinking after Covid has passed. M.M.T . sets out new economic opportunities  available, for example, to the the US. But not all countries have the luxury of this approach built up over decades of wealth and stability. Countries in what is now termed the "Global Sou...

When I was a kid, being inclusive or accepting of gay people was regarded as the death knell of commerce. Today it’s an essential attribute of a successful economy or company. This week we talk about the change Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We examine recent political trends and ask the question: is the centre, written off by the extremes, back in the game & And if so, what does it mean? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're slowly but surely coming to the boiling point of the housing market, but as we do so it's important to step back and understand the magnitude of the mess we're in. Join us this week as we quantify the booms & busts of the last 2 generations in Ireland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elections all over the world are now power struggles between "castes", not so much classes, ideologies or even economics. We look at economic history as being one on going struggle between three castes, the priests, the warriors and the merchants. Each traditional caste has evolved from their historical origins, but they are essentially unchanged in the modern. Today's politics is still dominated...

History is a great teacher - so this week we turn to the 1980s in Japan to learn how one country who had seemingly figured it all out - lost its way! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Money is so deeply engrained in our lives that we sometimes forget to think about it at all. With the rise of alternative currencies it's worth taking a step back and thinking about what exactly is money? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every country has the right to use the tools at their disposable to make the lives of its citizens more prosperous - even the tax code. With the G7 underway and it’s headlines about a common tax rate we’re going to explore what that could mean for Ireland before moving to another key global issue: Disrupting the construction industry to achieve affordable housing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...

Why gold may have started with prostitution, why wine makers take the mickey, why economists only see half the picture and what Naomi Osaka tell us about decision-making and why the so-called hard sciences are actually easy and the soft one, hard. We’ve always opened the podcast by saying that you need to understand human nature to understand the economy, so today instead of interrogating a s...

Bitcoin’s value has gone from 10 000 USD to a whopping 60 000 USD in the last 6 month - before going down to about 35 000 USD now. But what is it? Is it money or an asset? Can a currency so volatile be a reliable replacement to fiat money? Is it even a currency? Or something else entirely? This week we’re doing a 2 part series that aims to untangle all the noise around coins and cryptocurrenc...

Bitcoin’s value has gone from 10 000 USD to a whopping 60 000 USD in the last 6 month - before going down to about 35 000 USD now. But what is it? Is it money or an asset? Can a currency so volatile be a reliable replacement to fiat money? Is it even a currency? Or something else entirely? This week we’re doing a 2 part series that aims to untangle all the noise around coins and cryptocurrenc...

After a quick hit on Bitcoin we join Harvard economist Megan Greene for a deep dive on why MMT is rising in America, how Biden is embracing this new vision of monetary policy and what he’s trying to achieve with these massive infrastructure plans - all while watching out for the inflation risk! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brexit has created a new economic environment for the UK. Robert Lind joins us to untangle what the new business model might be moving forward, how it might diversify the UK economy & how it might affect London and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you know anyone in their 20s or 30s, no matter where in the world you are, you’ve been talking about housing. By all accounts the pandemic has turned an underlying condition into a fatal diagnostic for most millennials. Today we look at how the world’s housing markets in a variety of countries before moving onto the return of inflation - its always important to keep things in perspective Hosted...

Through a unique Broadway analogy, the fascinating three times Pulitzer Prize winner, New York columnist Times Tom Friedman helps us navigate the bigger picture behind the terrible headlines that we've been reading for the last week regarding the conflict in the Israel, Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As wages stagnate but house prices rise, a new class will emerge, beneficiaries of the housing boom, an inheritance class. As the younger generation falls behind, they will become more dependent on inheriting wealth, normally via parent's houses. This will create a drone class without the get up an go of previous strivers. We are already seeing it in some countries: you can go backwards. Also...

Can you feel it in the air? The wind is changing for property funds in Ireland, people are realizing how rigged the system is against them and they’re deciding to do something about it. The first step of any battle is to understand what you’re up against. This week we’ll try to breakdown these funds to better understand what they are & how we got here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy fo...

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it - or so the saying goes. This week, with the help of IG, we’re looking at what happened in the Great Depression and comparing it with Biden’s current economic approach to see if we’ve learned anything from the past economic cycles… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some argue that great civilized societies are measured by culture, literature or art but what about the idea that real sophistication is statistics? Truly self-confident societies reveal, expose, shine a light and measure. Calculation is purity. Data matters and to fully understand anything it’s often essential to understand numbers. Why do we use a base 12 for months? 60 for seconds? How do we ma...

The biggest barrier to progress is the contented class, driven by their C.A.V.E philosophy: Citizens Against Virtually Everything, they want things to slow down now that they have risen up. they object to almost everything, gumming up the planning process, driving up house costs and house prices. These Cavemen, consumed by the anti-social behavior of serial objecting, are lifting the ladder behind...

The music industry has been the most iconic example of disruption in the modern age, but if Will Page is right (former chief economist of Spotify) - it might only be the tip of the iceberg for what’s to come. Join us as we explore what happened to the music industry and how the same disruption is coming for many more categories, maybe including your own! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

Through the super-league we look at what might be the impending end of neo-liberalism: it's all about the background noise!. From there we tease out what economic super-cycles are, why they might be a breath of fresh air for the next generation and how we’ve come to an inflection point in macroeconomic thinking Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yesterday was the worst day to day for new cases of COVID 19 globally since the pandemic started. WE may feel safer, but the world is a dangerous as ever. To combat it, and any future variants, we must respond as a united planet: the reality is we can only open if rich countries pay for the vaccines of poor countries. In 1918 after WW1 we had the League of Nations, in 1948, after WW2 the UN,...