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David Mcwilliams

David Mcwilliams

The Irish Times

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Don’t panic, Ireland. Trump will drop his silly tariffs idea

08.02.2025 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Gen Z will become the propulsive force that drives Irish society

01.02.2025 20

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: Some are getting rich from the housing crisis, because one person’s mortgage is another’s piggy bank

25.01.2025 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

New government must build more and face down opposition to development

18.01.2025 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

An Irish economy that caps its airport traffic leaves everyone worse off

11.01.2025 40

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

The United States needs the world more than it thinks, and that’s no bad thing

We are heading into a trade war. That’s what the United States wants and that’s what the world will get. In 2025 it will become increasingly...

04.01.2025 9

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

The old gatekeepers have lost control of the message. The implication for politics, democracy and society are enormous

Let’s talk about the message, who gets to tell the story, who constructs the narrative and who frames the debate. The reason I’m ending the year...

28.12.2024 7

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Taylor Swift tops the economic charts, electoral victory for Centrist Dads and Apple’s awkward €13bn

As the year comes to a close, a few standout events and trends show the Irish economy is on a profoundly different growth track to that of our...

21.12.2024 8

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

David McWilliams: Europe has lost its mojo. Thankfully Ireland is in bed with the US

Why is the Irish economy growing faster than any country in Europe and why has that been the case for almost a quarter of a century? I thought...

14.12.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Only 9% of Irish people live in apartments. This has to change, and fast

Now that the election is out of the way, it’s time to get serious about housing. Ireland needs a major housing reset and this will discommode many....

30.11.2024 30

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

The potential threats to Ireland now come in four guises

Some people, perhaps those not so well versed in macroeconomics, perceive giveaway budgets and political auctions as signs of strength, reflective...

23.11.2024 3

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

In a too-hot Irish economy, politicians are treating voters like children in a sweet shop

Just say no! The political party that is honest with the population and rediscovers the ability to say no might be rewarded by the adult population...

16.11.2024 3

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Can Trumponomics work? Partly yes. Ultimately no

A few years ago this column argued that we should see significant political events through a very long-term lens that could be termed the economic...

09.11.2024 4

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

American politics has become the fiefdom of billionaires

Not that many people know that The Wizard of Oz, one of America’s most-loved films, is based on the arcane economic world of monetary policy. L...

02.11.2024 30

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Ireland beware: make no mistake, Trump wants to bring American money and jobs home

When it comes to business, one of the best descriptions of the Irish I have ever heard is that we prefer to be liked rather than feared. Affable,...

26.10.2024 6

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

What about essential workers being given access to subsidised homes in Dublin 1?

The only people doing great business in Dublin’s north inner city these days are the fellas selling metal shopfront shutters. Dublin, particularly...

19.10.2024 2

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

I don’t think sanctions on Israel are imminent, but things can change quickly in times of war

In the 1990s, when the Oslo peace process was in its incipient optimistic phase, I was the Israel economist for the large Swiss bank, UBS....

12.10.2024 2

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Why does Ireland have the most expensive electricity in Europe?

From the very beginning energy has been central to human existence. Economists will tell you that mastery of a new technology has always conferred...

05.10.2024 3

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Cork could be Bilbao if regenerated by a type of Tidy Towns competition on steroids

In terms of a small inner city neighbourhood there can be few potentially prettier places than Shandon on the north side of Cork city. A patchwork...

28.09.2024 3

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Ireland is ‘dangerously lopsided’. Galway and Limerick are essential to its future

There can be few more beautiful places than the west of Ireland experiencing an Indian summer. On Thursday morning, when the sun burned through the...

21.09.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Ireland should have Apple houses as well as Guinness homes

In London on Thursday night I was chatting to a number of prominent British financial journalists. The Apple/Irish decision was, of course, top of...

14.09.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

We can’t live in a digital age without data centres. Ireland needs more of them

Maybe it is just me, but I find people showing me their phone’s photos, capturing some cherished moment or other, extremely tedious. Blurry videos...

31.08.2024 1

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Ireland’s culture of objecting to housing developments comes at a high cost to young people

From a macroeconomic perspective, maybe for the first time ever, the major problem in Ireland is a supply side problem: demand is surging, but...

24.08.2024 4

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Why can’t Ireland provide first-world transport infrastructure for a first-rate workforce?

The other night in Croatia I was chatting to a young man from the northern Serbian town of Subotica. Like so much of the region, Subotica is a town...

17.08.2024 4

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Decaying Dublin city centre could be caught in an urban doom loop

In 1992, I moved into a flat on Parliament Street in Dublin city centre. Back then, the four residents of the refurbished 18th-century building...

10.08.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Today’s children could be worse-off than their parents

When I was a teenager, a friend’s south Dublin mother, in a one-stop effort to rank this unfamiliar young lad, on hearing my name asked: “Is that...

03.08.2024 3

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Ireland has French Revolution-style levels of income inequality

Kamala Harris’s father, Donald Harris, an eminent economics professor at prestigious Stanford University in California, was described by the...

27.07.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

So we’re going to have a 7m population. I’ve got a plan

This column has spoken before of the “10 million mindset”. The idea is that the population of the island is moving towards 10 million by the end of...

20.07.2024 4

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams

Ireland has an almost embarrassing abundance of revenue compared with the UK’s budgetary problems

London on the night of an England game is always a bit tense. The pubs are overflowing, Three Lions is being roared out of key by lads with more...

13.07.2024 10

The Irish Times

David Mcwilliams