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David Mcwilliams

David Mcwilliams

The Irish Times

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The Bertie Ahern world with the Simon Harris universe when it comes to housing are radically different

While not agreeing with the economics of it, I could see the politics behind Bertie Ahern’s housing-banking Celtic Tiger policy. Build loads of...

20.04.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

America and China are pursuing a type of industrial cold war

In 1943, Alice O’Connor created Howard Roark, the hero-protagonist of her best-selling and controversial book The Fountainhead. Alice O’Connor was...

13.04.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: A successful, prosperous Gaza is possible. Here is a model

In the final months of the second World War, the various victorious powers sketched out their vision for the devastated Germany. What would a postwar...

06.04.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Nimbyism is blocking homes being built. It has to stop

When people object to development, when they claim a right to light or lodge a judicial review to ascertain what the constitutionally acceptable...

30.03.2024 30

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Ireland needs a dose of ‘Protestant pragmatism’, where power is delegated to the people

The gothic cathedral of St Peter, perched on top of the walled citadel of Geneva’s old town, is completely devoid of ornamentation. No candles or...

24.03.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: Ireland needs a dose of ‘Protestant pragmatism’

The gothic cathedral of St Peter, perched on top of the walled citadel of Geneva’s old town, is completely devoid of ornamentation. No candles or...

23.03.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: Inheritance makes inequality permanent and favours children of the rich

It is easy to dismiss last week’s referendum result as an inconsequential one-off, based on an unimportant issue, foisted on the people by an...

16.03.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: Bitcoin’s real value is based on the greater fool theory

Bitcoin is back in the news. The gyrations of its price are noteworthy because they create extreme excitement for its enthusiasts. These people...

09.03.2024 20

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

We are witnessing the death throes of RTÉ. I say this with a heavy heart

RTÉ is going out of business. Businesses go bust all the time. Technology can blindside a legacy business, or bad management, but sometimes it’s...

02.03.2024 9

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

If Ireland is to develop in a less Dublin-centric way, Cork must grow

Did you know that this year is the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Dart line? How time flies. In 1984, Irish GDP was €20 billion; today...

24.02.2024 20

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Ireland needs to be more like Ryanair and less like Irish Rail

When you look around Ireland and take in the fiasco of the Children’s Hospital, the saga that is the Dublin Metro or the inability to provide...

17.02.2024 40

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: Climate change is a threat. Fanaticism is a bigger one

This week the European Copernicus Climate Change Service revealed that the world just experienced the warmest January on record. The average...

10.02.2024 20

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: We are only at the end of the beginning of Brexit

In November 1942, Europe was in dire need of a bit of good news. It came from Egypt, where after three years of defeats, retreats, setbacks and Nazi...

03.02.2024 20

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: The Irish economy is a dog chasing its own tail

By any reliable economic measure, Joe Biden should be strolling in the USA. The US economy posted more than 3 per cent growth in the final quarter of...

27.01.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

‘People before bonnet’: a battle for the heart and soul of my town is ongoing

A battle between the past and the future is playing out in Dún Laoghaire. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which has done an amazing job at...

20.01.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: Let’s redraw the mental map of Ireland in which all roads lead to Dublin

We all know that Ireland’s demographic history is one of the most unusual and tragic in Europe. The collapse of the population from the early 19th...

13.01.2024 30

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Today’s column comes from Los Angeles, where streets paved with gold are also boulevards of broken dreams

O’Connell School in Dublin 1 has produced its fair share of taoisigh, sports people and journalists, writers and poets, but maybe few are as...

06.01.2024 20

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

AI will be of most benefit to educated countries like Ireland

I’m looking at one of the last original Gutenberg Bibles. It’s beautiful. There are only 48 left in the world and only 12 remaining on animal hide...

16.12.2023 8

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: Ireland’s finances are healthy but the public mood is fragile

Last week, the column spoke about the possibility of a 2nd Irish Republic. The idea is that this Republic has run its course and, like the French did...

09.12.2023 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: Ireland’s problem is not money, it is management. Let’s fix the management

Does Ireland need a second Republic? France, the home of all things Republican, has had five of them. When the French feel that the structure of their...

02.12.2023 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

The next president of Argentina will upend all your prejudices about dull economists

In 1943, Alice O’Connor, the married name of the writer better known as Ayn Rand, published The Fountainhead in New York. Rand, born Alina Rosenbaum...

25.11.2023 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: What will happen when the middle class get hit by ChatGPT?

The famous opening scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, shows a group of apes jostling for position. One ape discovers a bone, a femur,...

18.11.2023 9

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

What connects Sam Bankman-Fried to Dublin’s office market?

In economics, we are used to talking about casualties of high interest rates, companies that go bust under the pressure of debt, people who default...

11.11.2023 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

The Irish street is pro-Palestinian, but it is paved with American money

Demography is destiny. Population has been an overarching metric in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the last century or so. Today, there are...

04.11.2023 9

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

The Irish street is pro-Palestinian, but it is paved with American money

Demography is destiny. Population has been an overarching metric in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the last century or so. Today, there are...

04.11.2023 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Icelandic women went on strike this week. Irish women should follow suit

Many years ago, when working in a large London bank, a few days around Christmas before we broke up for the holidays some alpha male fathers brought...

28.10.2023 7

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Our capital city shuns the sea but we need a turnaround for future Dubliners

When you emerge cityward from the Port Tunnel, you face a brick wall. Dublin’s waterfront view is a high grey wall, topped with rusty barbed wire to...

21.10.2023 7

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

‘You couldn’t make it up’: David McWilliams gives his verdict on Budget 2024

Do you want a lesson in what happens when the vicissitudes of electoral politics hi-jack economic planning, putting the State on a short-term...

14.10.2023 20

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Ireland’s commercial property market is on the cusp of monumental collapse

Last Sunday evening, I strolled from Dublin Castle (that’s hosting the brilliant Festival of History) down the Liffey via Ringsend to the 3Arena....

07.10.2023 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: It’s time for Ireland to declare war on dereliction

Last week I walked around Vienna, a city that doesn’t have a housing crisis. One thing that struck me was the care with which the old buildings are...

30.09.2023 30

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Let’s get our act together on housing. It’s time to end the old failed way of doing things

In November 1898, 125 years ago this year, Gustav Klimt and a number of other Viennese artists opened the Secession building, the fulcrum of their new...

23.09.2023 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: I’m pro-immigration. We need to have a conversation about housing

Is it time to discuss policy on immigration to protect liberal, open, tolerant Ireland? Regular readers may be aware that as the grandson of...

16.09.2023 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: The economic transformation of Irish rugby has been phenomenal

The wing is a lonely position in rugby. Playing out on the windswept touchline in a schools cup final in Lansdowne Road was a terrifying experience....

09.09.2023 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

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