The David McWilliams Podcast

The aim of this weekly podcast is to make economics easy, uncomplicated and accessible. With the world at a political, technological and financial tipping point, economics has never been so important to all of us and yet, it’s made inaccessible and complicated by so many. I’ve always thought what is complicated is rarely important and what is important is rarely complicated. That will be our motto. Every week we are going to tease out some big economic or political issue facing us, not just here in Ireland but in Europe and further afield. Globalisation has brought us all together. We all face similar challenges whether you live in Dublin, London, Minnesota or Milan. If you would like to enjoy all of our content ad-free and have early access to episodes, subscribe to DMCW+ on Apple Podcast. If you would like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/DavidMcWilliams. Join the gang! https://plus.acast.com/s/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

Inflation for Losers with Mark Blyth

May 7, 2025 • 41 mins

Broadcast from a wine-soaked table in Italy’s Valle di Comino, ancestral home of Ireland’s chipper dynasties, this episode covers everything from Irish-Italian football matches and Elvis impersonators to the far more serious threat inflation poses to liberal democracy. We chat to political economist Mark Blyth about his new book Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers, unpicking why prices stay stubbornly high, who inflation hits h...

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How Canada Became the Anti-Trump Blueprint

May 5, 2025 • 42 mins

This week, we talk about the most unexpected political shift of the year, Canada’s sudden transformation into the liberal world’s new playbook. We unpack how Mark Carney, once a Davos technocrat, won an election by turning it into a referendum on Trump… and won big. Along the way, we explore nationalism (the decent kind), what Trump gets wrong about trade, and why standing up to bullies actually works. Plus, we chat with Evan Solom...

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Slowing Down in an Age of Acceleration with Elif Shafak

April 30, 2025 • 34 mins

This week, we take a breath. In a world spinning faster than a speedcubing final, we step away from bond yields and geopolitics and lean into something more human: imagination. We swap global crises for quiet joys, from a Rubik’s cube competition in Wicklow to the power of storytelling in uncertain times. As we always say, economics is about life and today we are joined by bestselling novelist Elif Shafak, to explore how fiction he...

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The Art of Taxation: How a Crisis Could Save Your City

April 28, 2025 • 34 mins

Trump’s global chaos might just offer an opportunity. if we’re bold enough to take it. In this episode, we dive into how a crisis can give countries the political permission to reshape their economies, starting with how we tax, who we tax, and why we desperately need to rethink urban financing. From Roman emperors funding the Colosseum with "toilet taxes," to why Dublin (and most Irish cities) are economic engines shackled by a bro...

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Popeonomics?

April 23, 2025 • 45 mins

We mark the passing of Pope Francis by asking: is there such a thing as "Catholic Economics"? If so, what is it, and what strain of Catholic economics did the Pope represent? We start with a lad stopped by the Italian cops on a Vespa in Rome, and a most unusual and uplifting conversation with the Pope, Bono, and yours truly. Yeah, for real. We explore liberation theology, the roots of Franciscan banking, and the common and deeply e...

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The New Great Game?

April 21, 2025 • 37 mins

The world shifting under our feet and US financial markets remain in turmoil. We explore whether Trump’s economic war with China is backfiring, and might push Europe closer to Beijing, not Washington. We detail a likley monetary scenario for the US over the coming months which will be the backdrop to any geo-political moves. For example, could France, weighed down by debt, turn to China as creditor? Are we entering a new globa...

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Paris, Power & Picking Sides: Europe’s Awakening in a MAGA World

April 16, 2025 • 35 mins

Broadcasting from Paris, we bring a bottle of wine and a warning: the transatlantic honeymoon is over. As America turns inward under the MAGA banner, Europe, led in thought (and theatre) by France, is starting to ask tough questions: Can we still rely on the US? Should we even try? From Macron’s eerily prescient Sorbonne speech to the wild moves in the US bond market, this episode explores why France feels vindicated, why Ireland m...

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The Molly Bloom Model: Why Economies Should Say Yes

April 14, 2025 • 35 mins

Yes has always been more of a worldview than a word. In this episode, we channel the spirit of Molly Bloom’s iconic soliloquy from Ulysses to explore how saying “yes” can reshape economies. From Joyce’s sensual metaphor for self-abandon to the economics of openness, growth, and transformation, we dig into what it means to embrace change. Why does resistance stagnate nations? What happens when a country dares to say yes to innovatio...

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The Nike Economy: Why Vietnam Is America’s Hidden Factory Floor

April 9, 2025 • 33 mins

What do Nike runners, IKEA furniture, and half a million Vietnamese workers have in common? They’re all caught in the crossfire of Trump’s tariff tantrum. This week, we trace the hidden supply chains behind the global economy, from Vietnam’s rise as a manufacturing powerhouse to how a sneaker company now employs more people abroad than Ford and GM do at home. We break down how the MAGA tariff regime threatens to crater entire econo...

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Tariffs & Other Fantasies

April 8, 2025 • 38 mins

This week, we watched the world’s biggest economy base its entire trade policy on a formula so dodgy it wouldn’t pass the Leaving Cert. We break down how Trump’s tariffs are chaotic, as well as economically illiterate, dangerously populist, and could have slammed Ireland with more than a 39% hit if not for the EU. This isn’t just bad maths. It’s billionaires mistaking personal instinct for macro strategy, and a White House mistakin...

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The Economics of Employee Ownership

April 6, 2025 • 33 mins

What if the future of capitalism isn’t tech or tax, but trust? This week, we’re talking about Employee Ownership Trusts: a radical rethink of who gets to own the companies we work for. We’re joined by Alan Coleman of Wolfgang Digital, the first Irish company to take the leap and hand ownership to its staff. It’s a story about building businesses that are more productive, more democratic and maybe even more human. From colonial corp...

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Jeffrey Goldberg Has Entered the Chat

April 3, 2025 • 50 mins

On Wednesday, we watched in real time as America’s trade policy devolved into a parody of itself. Trump’s Liberation Day was part Caesar, part Mattress Mick, all empty bluster. A dodgy chalkboard of made-up numbers, a crowd in high-vis, and a president who thinks tariffs are just theatre. You may also have heard that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic and friend of the pod, was accidentally added...

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Did Ferris Bueller Predict the Trade War?

March 31, 2025 • 38 mins

What do tariffs, the Laffer Curve, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off have in common? More than you’d think. This week, we dive into the world of trade policy, culture wars, and deflated middle-aged fatherhood, all from the basement. From Trump's so-called "Liberation Day" of tariffs to secret WhatsApp groups planning military strikes, this episode examines how America’s trade war is about identity, masculinity, and a long-festering grud...

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Why Do Good People Make Bad Decisions?

March 27, 2025 • 39 mins

From Dublin’s housing crisis to stalled metros and blocked wind farms, this week’s episode explores how well-meaning people, and governments, have tied themselves in knots. We ask the simple but provocative question: if we could build Ardnanacrusha in three years a century ago, why can’t we build homes or rail lines now? Blame over-regulation, hyper-democracy, and good intentions gone rogue. Whether it’s zoning laws, environm...

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Trump's First 65 Days

March 25, 2025 • 34 mins

Trump is back, and in just 75 days, he’s issued half as many executive orders in two months than Biden did in four years. Beyond the chaos, there’s a bigger story: what happens when a country, like Ireland, finds itself up against a global heavyweight? From Trump’s tariffs and economic incoherence to America's shift toward isolationism, We argue it’s time for smaller nations to find their rope-a-dope—a strategy borrowed straig...

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Trump, Putin & McGregor: Ukraine & the New World Order with Olesya Khromeychuk

March 20, 2025 • 45 mins

Ukraine is being carved up—again. This week, Trump and Putin are discussing Ukraine’s future, and the Ukrainians aren’t even invited to the table. We explain why the Congress of Vienna 1815 is the framework through which we should look at the new world order being torn up and rewritten, where might is right and small nations; whether in Eastern Europe or the West of Ireland, are left to fend for themselves. Enter Conor McGrego...

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The Doonbeg Doctrine: Trump and the Chaos Economy

March 18, 2025 • 40 mins

St. Patrick’s Day diplomacy, a shifting global order, and Trump whispering in Micheál Martin’s ear; he's nursing more than a hangover with his front-row seat to the chaos economy of Trump’s America. This week, we break down the Irish leader’s White House shindig, the Doonbeg-ification of Irish diplomacy, and why Trump sees Ireland as a useful pawn in his battle with Europe. Meanwhile, Brexit is floundering, Germany is rearming, and...

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Is America the Next Big Short? With Michael Lewis

March 13, 2025 • 41 mins

In a week where the U.S. stock market has been rocked by recession fears and escalating trade tensions, we sit down with renowned author Michael Lewis, known for works like Liar's Poker, The Big Short, and Moneyball, to dissect the economic landscape. The S&P 500 plummeted 5.7%, marking its worst week since September, while the Nasdaq Composite saw a 4% drop, largely due to concerns over trade wars and slowing economic growth. Tesl...

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Germany Wakes Up: Britain Breaks Out

March 11, 2025 • 35 mins

For 70 years, Germany kept its head down; an economic juggernaut, but a military lightweight, happy to let America call the shots. Not anymore.J.D. Vance’s off-the-cuff dismissal of Europe as a lost cause, combined with Trump’s America First foreign policy, has done something extraordinary: it’s forced Germany to step up. And when Germany steps up, the whole world shifts. And one of the shifts could well be, the UK running back to ...

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Casement, Congo & the Comeback of Empire: Is Trump Reviving Imperialism?

March 6, 2025 • 33 mins

Neo-imperialism is marching, loud and proud, straight into the heart of global politics. Between Trump’s quiet dealmaking in Riyadh, to his open musings about annexing Canada, the last few weeks have shattered the illusion that the age of empire is behind us. The world order of the last 70 years is crumbling, replaced by raw, transactional power. Trump and Putin are set to carve up Ukraine, billionaires are circling mineral-rich te...

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The David McWilliams Podcast

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Inflation for Losers with Mark Blyth

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}How Canada Became the Anti-Trump Blueprint

Slowing Down in an Age of Acceleration with Elif Shafak

The Art of Taxation: How a Crisis Could Save Your City

Popeonomics?

The New Great Game?

Paris, Power & Picking Sides: Europe’s Awakening in a MAGA World

The Molly Bloom Model: Why Economies Should Say Yes

The Nike Economy: Why Vietnam Is America’s Hidden Factory Floor

Tariffs & Other Fantasies

The Economics of Employee Ownership

Jeffrey Goldberg Has Entered the Chat

Did Ferris Bueller Predict the Trade War?

Why Do Good People Make Bad Decisions?

Trump's First 65 Days

Trump, Putin & McGregor: Ukraine & the New World Order with Olesya Khromeychuk

The Doonbeg Doctrine: Trump and the Chaos Economy

Is America the Next Big Short? With Michael Lewis

Germany Wakes Up: Britain Breaks Out

Casement, Congo & the Comeback of Empire: Is Trump Reviving Imperialism?

Popular Podcasts

Inflation for Losers with Mark Blyth

How Canada Became the Anti-Trump Blueprint