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The David McWilliams Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by David McWilliams & John Davis
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. You can also find our early access ad-free episodes on Spotify by searching for the David McWilliams Podcast Premium Feed on the app or by clicking <a href="ht
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- Today35 min
John Burn-Murdoch on Why Hard Work No Longer Pays (Live from Kilkenomics)
Recorded live at Kilkenomics, we’re joined by the FT’s John Burn-Murdoch, the most interesting data journalist writing today. Wealth inequality’s share may not have budged in 40 years, but incomes haven’t kept pace with wealth, so working your way from the middle to the top has gone from hard to basically impossible. That’s why young people are piling into crypto, gambling and tech stocks, not fecklessness, but a rational bet when the conveyor belt has stopped. We get into the pensions time-bomb (today’s retirees take out 3-4 times what they paid in, millennials will get back about €1 for €1), why a youthquake alone can’t fix it, and why the AI jobs story isn’t layoffs but a hiring freeze that hits the young hardest. Plus the one growth sector AI can’t touch: human interaction. And yes, hackers cooking Europe’s supermarket fridges. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 5 days ago35 min
The AI Reckoning: When a Trillion-Dollar Bet Meets Rising Rates
The AI story has flipped from a technology story to a credit story, and that changes everything. Anthropic’s bonds have been downgraded to junk, Elon Musk says credit markets are closing to anything with “AI” attached, and half a trillion dollars was wiped off Alphabet in a single day. We dig into the uncomfortable data: outside the Magnificent Seven, AI has delivered almost zero productivity payoff to corporate America, revenue per worker is flat across the other 493 S&P companies. Then the real danger: if inflation forces the Fed to push rates from 4% to 6.5% to crush it, an overvalued AI market smashes straight into rising rates driven by a war in Iran. Plus why Christine Lagarde’s early exit from the ECB might have one eye on the French presidency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 1 weeks ago36 min
Bibi or Tibi? Israel’s Deadlock and the Midterms the Ayatollah Could Decide
In Israel, Netanyahu has lost ground but still frames every choice as “Bibi or Tibi,” and liberal Israel faces a once-in-a-generation chance to oust him, if it can stomach governing with the Arab parties who took 18% of the Knesset. We talk to Daphna Maor of The Marker (Haaretz) from Tel Aviv, put the odds at 50-50, and ask whether the Arab bloc could become Israel’s Parnell holding the balance of power. Then the US midterms, voting tonight. Inflation, mortgage rates at 7%, flatlining house prices and a K-shaped economy have Trump on the ropes, while the top 1% have gained wealth and immigration has vanished as a worry. The twist: if Trump loses the House and Senate, foreign affairs is all he’s got left, which could make him more dangerous, not less. Plus Serbia’s students topple Vučić and Bolsonaro flees to the US. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 1 weeks ago35 min
The Five Scariest Numbers in the Global Economy (A Halloween Special)
For Halloween, we start with Ireland’s first witch trial: Alice Kyteler, the Kilkenny moneylender who buried four husbands and skipped town, leaving her servant to burn at the stake in 1324. For a real scare, we dive into the five numbers that should keep you up at night. The Shiller index at 41 (last seen in 1999, just before the dot-com crash), global government debt at 94% of GDP, The US paying $1 trillion a year just to service its debt, more than its defence budget, the 10-year Treasury yield at 5.36%, a 24-year high and oil at $110, 80% up on last year, thanks to the Strait of Hormuz. If it all goes pear-shaped, the question is simple: who’s the witch?Use code WITCH at kilkenomics.com for 20% off tickets all day October 30th & 31st Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 2 weeks ago43 min
Is France the Canary? The End of the Centre and Europe’s Generational Revolt
A week of rioting in France, but we argue it’s no blip. Marine Le Pen is polling around 35%, with the next candidate on just 14%, and she could become the first ever to win outright in the first round. French public spending is 57% of GDP (31% in Ireland, and above anything the Soviet Union managed), over-65s have gone from 12% of the population in 1968 to 25% today, and bond yields have jumped from 3.4% to 4.8%. We unpack the poly-crisis behind it: the 68ers versus their grandchildren, diesel prices and the ghost of the Gilets Jaunes, a left captured by the educated elite, AI anxiety, and half of French schools missing a teacher. Plus 68% of French voters say democracy isn’t delivering, Meloni getting outflanked on her right, and whether the European project survives the generation that built it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 2 weeks ago44 min
The World’s First AI Minister: Can Democracies Make Haste Slowly? with Evan Solomon
Canada has appointed the world’s first minister for AI, and Evan Solomon joins us to explain why. Canada invented modern AI through Hinton, Bengio and Sutton, then watched big tech harvest it. Now Ottawa is subsidising up to 80% of compute for home-grown firms and has put €150 million behind Bengio’s “safe by design” AI. How do slow, deliberate democracies regulate a technology teaching itself at lightning speed? Plus Carney’s coalition of middle powers, why Trump is the best thing to happen to Canadian nationalism, and “ancestral intelligence.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 3 weeks ago41 min
Peak Humans: Modernity Vs. Tradition
Broadcasting from the Aran Islands, where the population has crashed from 48,000 to 3,000, we look at what may be the biggest data point of 2026: for the first time ever, the human race is shrinking. The global fertility rate has dropped to 1.8, below the 2.1 needed to replace ourselves, and of 236 countries studied, 219 are in decline. The twist is that it’s happening fastest among poorer, less-educated women in poorer countries, which wrecks the old rule that you have to get rich before you get old. So is modernity itself the culprit, and could tradition stage a comeback? Plus, why AI scepticism sent investors rushing back into bonds this week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 3 weeks ago39 min
A View From NYC: The Diaspora and the Midterms
Live from New York, with a radical idea: treat the Irish diaspora as our greatest soft power asset. Every Irish child costs the state about €500,000 to educate, and America pockets the return when they emigrate. So scrap tax for two years for anyone coming home, and give citizenship to a third generation of Irish Americans. Then the midterms, four weeks out. Trump is on 33%, the lowest of any midterm president since 1974, petrol is back above $4, and markets give Democrats a 65% shot at both chambers. A blue wave makes him a lame duck. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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About 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. You can also find our early access ad-free episodes on Spotify by searching for the David McWilliams Podcast Premium Feed on the app or by clicking <a href="ht
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