The David McWilliams Podcast
Episodes
Trump vs. The Fed: Sabotage, Showdown, or Economic Revolution?
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump is taking aim at the most powerful, and most opaque, institution in the global economy: the Federal Reserve. By moving to oust Jay Powell...
The Great Uncoupling & Fiscal Crisis: America, Europe & the Bond Market Reckoning
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
America and Europe are drifting apart, not just politically, but philosophically. In this episode, we dig into the consequences of that split, compari...
The Bipolar Economy: Trump, Oil & the End of Balance with Carole Nakhle
13 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In a single week, Donald Trump goes after the Federal Reserve, criminalises Jerome Powell, and shakes the idea of central bank independence, the quiet...
Venezuela Falls, Cuba Trembles with Marla Dukharan
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Washington moved on Venezuela, and the shockwaves are racing across the Americas. Oil, refugees, collapsed regimes, back-room deals: this may spell th...
After Maduro: Who Really Runs Venezuela Now? with Juan Tokatlian
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Broadcasting from the streets of Medellín, we dive into Latin America’s reaction to the stunning removal of Nicolás Maduro, and the strange new re...
What If 2026 Is the Year America Leaves Us Behind?
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 2026, and Ireland is skating on a thin economic edge. With the US retreating from Europe, American industry is stalling here, no new labs, no n...
What's Really Going on In Venezuela? Oil, Empire & the Next Proxy War
30 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Venezuela once rivalled Switzerland in wealth, today it’s produced more refugees than Syria. What happened? We go straight to Buenos Aires to talk t...
2025: China’s Year
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For 2,000 years, China has played a different game. While Europe fragmented, fought, and conquered outward, China focused inward, on standardisation, ...
Was Genghis Khan the World’s First Globalist?
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We usually remember Genghis Khan as history’s ultimate destroyer but what if he was also its first great economic integrator? In this episode, we re...
Can Wind Power Make Us Rich Again?
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ireland controls seven times more sea than land, and with the Atlantic blowing 25% stronger winds than the North Sea, we sit on one of the greatest un...
Europe Under Threat: Can the Centre Hold?
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Europe is under pressure militarily, economically, and politically. NATO spending is up 45% since 2014. Germany’s exports to China have dropped 11% ...
The Great Affordability Lie?
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Around the world, people feel poorer, even when the numbers say we’ve never been richer. In Ireland, GDP is soaring, household wealth has more than ...
Petty Lines in the Sand
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re diving into the economics of borders, the lines we pretend are ancient but were mostly scratched into the earth by soldiers, surveyors and emp...
Are Lawyers the Reason You’re Still Stuck in Traffic?
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why can’t we build anything? We dig into the Dublin Metro being dragged back into court by the cavemen of Ranelagh and unpack how a tiny, well-...
Is Central Asia the Next Front Line of Global Power? with Peter Frankopan
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Leaving the US after weeks on the road, we zoom out from New York and Washington and asks a question we almost never ask in Europe: what if the real f...
Why Can’t the West Build Anymore?
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Reporting from New York, with a Bitcoin slump at his heels and the Hollywood-launch buzz of Money: A Story of Humanity still in the air, we ...
Is $4,000 Gold the First Crack in the Fiat Era?
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Broadcasting from under the Hollywood sign in the middle of a rare Californian downpour, we follow the water straight into the gold. Starting with LA ...
Hollywood, Soft Power & Ireland’s Anti-American Left?
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Reporting from West Hollywood, in a rock ’n’ roll hotel with no parties and no drugs as house rules. We take a walk down Sunset Boulevard and into...
Vibecession, AI Mania & The New Casino Economy with Kyla Scanlon
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Live at Kilkenomics, we welcome Roscommon's own economics star Kyla Scanlon author of In This Economy for a fast, funny, and razor...
The Tech Crash, The Demographic Time Bomb, and Ireland’s Future 40
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A tech bubble always feels rational until it doesn’t, as Wall Street fuses with Silicon Valley and the entire American economy becomes a single hype...
The Pope’s Children at 20: How Ireland Grew Up
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty years ago, The Pope’s Children changed how Ireland saw itself; a country high on credit, confidence, and Celtic Tiger ambition. Two decades l...
Australia, Argentina & Ireland: A Tale of Three Economies
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australia is the country Argentina should’ve been, and the country Ireland could become. Seventy years ago, Argentina and Australia stood side by si...
The Life Raft for Billionaires: Why Tech Titans Are Buying New Zealand
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As Ireland square up to the All Blacks at the weekend, we are all New Zealand this week, podcasting from the edge of the world, Richie McCaw's ol...
The AI Bubble: Boom, Bust & Baked in Nimbin
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Somewhere between a biker bar in Nimbin and a data centre in Virginia, we try to make sense of the biggest capital boom in history. The AI revolution ...
The Lost Sailors: From Aboriginals to Schumpeter
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Deep in an Australian rainforest, surrounded by birds older than any cathedral, We unpack one of the greatest mysteries in human history, how the firs...
The Land of Opportunity Down Under: Australia
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cycling through Brisbane in the heat, we've found a country that hasn’t had a recession in nearly half a century; a statistical miracle in modern...
Saudi the Kingmaker: Gaza, Trump & a New Middle East with Andrew Maxwell
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Live from Christchurch, literally tomorrow, we bring on Andrew Maxwell, fresh off stage in Riyadh, to ground-truth the social shift you won’t see in...
The Behavioural Budget: How Tax Shapes Us
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We promise this isn’t another boring budget breakdown! This week, we’re asking a bigger question: what if taxation isn’t really about raising mo...
The Art of Creation with The Edge - Part Two
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back with The Edge for part two of our conversation. This time, on the creative mind itself, we talk about what connects the artist and the en...
The Art of Creation with The Edge
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Live from the basement, we sit down with The Edge, the musician who wanted to be a scientist, to talk about the spark that connects rock bands and sta...
What is Radical Politics?
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We like to think of the centre as steady, sensible, and grounded, but what if the “centre” is actually the most radical place in politics right no...
Culture Wars in the West, Alliances in the East
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While the West burns itself out on culture wars, the East is quietly stitching together something bigger. This is the age of geo-economics, where oil,...
Who Owns the Flag? From the American Revolution to Charlie Kirk
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re in New York this week, celebrating my mam’s 90th birthday and launching The History of Money in the U.S., but the backdrop is Amer...
The Economics of Golf
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does golf tell us about money, power, and the way economies work? From billion-dollar sponsorship deals to the rise of LIV Golf, f...
From Cod to Culture: What Inishmore Teaches Us About the Experience Economy
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Between 250,000-300,000 tourists land on the island every year, 2,500 a day in summer, and yet it still feels authentic, alive, and deeply Irish. In t...
Could the GAA Solve Ireland’s Housing Crisis?
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the solution to Ireland’s housing crisis has been sitting on our doorstep all along? We dive into the Danish model of cooperative housing, w...
Deepfakes, Big Tech, and the Coming AI Crash?
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
AI investment is exploding: the “Magnificent Seven” of Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, and NVIDIA, are ploughing almost 7% of US GD...
France on the Brink: Debt, Drama, and a Possible Sixth Republic
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Broadcast from Île de Ré, we dive into France’s mounting fiscal mess and political paralysis. With Macron a lame-duck, bond markets charging Paris...
Economics in a Tent: Live at Electric Picnic 2025
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We took economics to a music festival, and somehow packed the tent. In this Electric Picnic highlights episode from Mindfield, we rock up bleary-eyed ...
Is America The Richest Third World Country?
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is the US drifting into Peronism? We trace the playbook, tariffs and import substitution, national champions, censorship-by-intimidation, and a war on...
Germany, 10 Years After “Wir Schaffen Das”, What Really Happened? with Katja Hoyer
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ten years ago, Angela Merkel opened Germany’s doors to more than 1.1 million asylum seekers in a single year with the words “Wir schaffen das” (...
The Nationalisation of the New Home Market
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The state has quietly become the biggest buyer of new homes. In fact, builders like Cairn Homes now have forward sales of nearly €946 million, much ...
Ukraine at the Crossroads: From Donetsk to the Garrison State
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After nearly 11 years of war, Putin’s maximalist demands have shrunk to a sliver of land in Donetsk, a pyrrhic victory after countless lives lost an...
Ireland is a Hostage to Fortune
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Have we caught a case of Dutch Disease? Ireland’s dependence on foreign multinationals looks less like a golden goose and more like Japanese knotwee...
America’s Dutch Disease: How Debt Became the World’s Hottest Export
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve always known Dutch Disease as what happens when a country strikes oil or gas and accidentally hollows out the rest of its economy. But what if...
From The Godfather to the Blockchain: How Easy Money Seduced Wall Street (and the White House)
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve always said to understand the economy, you have to understand human nature, and nothing reveals that better than watching the biggest players ...
Japan: Lost in Translation Part Two
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We all love a boom story, until it turns into a 40‑year hangover. In 1995, Japan’s nominal GDP hit its high‑water mark. It took until the 2020s ...
Japan: From Feudal Isolation to Economic Superpower
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week marks 80 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and we’re taking a deep dive into Japan’s extraordinary economic sto...
Generation Rent: How Housing Costs Are Exporting Ireland's Future
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week we talk to Matthew Ruddy, a young Dublin entrepreneur who did everything right - built his first business at 17, worked alongside the lads a...
Did Europe Just Surrender to Trump?
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Not so fast! We unpack the surprise EU-US trade deal that has everyone shouting sellout but we see it differently. In this episode, we take ...
When the West Woke Up: How Yugoslavia Fell Apart
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we take you back to the final years of Yugoslavia, a country that exploded into one of the bloodiest wars Europe has seen since WWII. We tr...
Why Ireland Must Rethink Its Economic Future; Fast
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this week’s episode, we dive headfirst into the economic storm clouds gathering over Ireland, and the urgent need to act before we get soaked. We...
The Ghosts of Yugoslavia: Borders, Bankers & Balkan Ghosts
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we dive headfirst into one of Europe’s most brutal and under-discussed chapters: the collapse of Yugoslavia. Live from Croatia, whe...
Can We Cope With This Level of Immigration?
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the podcast, we take on the two biggest issues shaping our future: immigration and housing. We begin with the looming threat of U.S. tari...
Who Wants to Live Forever? The Economics of Immortality, Tech Bros & Tír na nÓg
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we start with Oasis and end in Silicon Valley, via Tír na nÓg. We’re talking about the economics of not dying, and how tech billio...
Trieste and the City of the Future
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trieste is a city that’s belonged to everyone, and no one. This week, we go walking through a place that’s been Austrian, Italian, Yugoslav, and, ...
Who Killed the Living City?
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After travelling through Montreal, Bilbao, and Vilnius, cities alive with colour, sound, and soul, I returned home and felt the contrast sharply. Dubl...
Content, Culture & the Bottom Line: How Finance is Killing the Avant-Garde
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are we living through the death of innovation? We’re back in HQ asking a tough question: has culture stagnated, and if so, is economics to blame? We...
Has the Balance of Global Power Just Shifted to Israel?
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Has Israel just become the undisputed power in the Middle East? After a lightning-fast 12-day conflict, oil prices fell instead of spiking, Iran backe...
The Dollar, the Ape & the End of an Empire
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Live from a packed GAA hall at the Dalkey Book Festival, this episode tackles one of the wildest questions in economics: how did humans, flimsy,...
Memoirs of an Arab Jew
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this powerful episode recorded at the Dalkey Book Festival, we sit down with Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, whose memoir The Memoirs of an Arab...
The Islamic Enlightenment
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tensions in the Middle East are escalating, following Israel’s surprise attack on targets across Iran on Friday, and ensuing strikes between the two...
The Hanseatic League: Europe’s First Free Trade Zone
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Forget Brussels, the first European Union was built by medieval merchants, not politicians. This week, we dive into the Hanseatic League: a loose alli...
Will America’s Debt Crash the Global Economy?
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Jamie Dimon warns that the U.S. bond market could "crack," it’s time to listen. This week, we dive into America’s mounting debt crisis, with ...
From Bolsheviks to Bolt: The Tallinnovation Nation
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re on the road again, this time reporting from Vilnius, Lithuania, in the heart of Europe’s Bloodlands. Don’t be fooled by the history o...
Creativity in the Cul-de-Sac: Why the Suburbs Won
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Back home at HQ, we stretch our legs and dive into something huge hiding in plain sight: Ireland is now the most educated country in the world. B...
Spain’s Miracle Economy: What They Got Right (That We Didn’t) with Joe Haslam
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We're back in Spain, and I’ve got questions. Why is Spain growing faster than Germany, France, and even the US? Why can they build high-speed rail f...
The Bilbao Blueprint
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We're in Bilbao this week, and it’s got us thinking. How does a football club that refuses to sign non-Basque players manage to qualify for the Cham...
The Moody Blues: No More Finance Bros in LA
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we’re keeping one eye on Wall Street and the other on a canal in Dublin. Moody’s just downgraded the United States' credit rating, a mo...
The Battle for Africa with Pumi Mashigo
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From wine valleys to White House stand-offs, we’re in South Africa as the continent’s biggest economy finds itself caught between China, Russia, a...
Trump’s New Enemies: Billionaires, Big Pharma & Bibi?
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trump is stealing Bernie’s manifesto. In this episode, we dive into why Trump is suddenly talking about taxing the rich and slashing the cost of pre...
A Letter from Africa with Simon Kuper
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week I'm in South Africa on a book and speaking tour and am chatting at the Franschoek Literary Festival, so we are all South Africa today. A cou...
Inflation for Losers with Mark Blyth
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Broadcast from a wine-soaked table in Italy’s Valle di Comino, ancestral home of Ireland’s chipper dynasties, this episode covers everything from ...
How Canada Became the Anti-Trump Blueprint
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Slowing Down in an Age of Acceleration with Elif Shafak
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 somethin...
The Art of Taxation: How a Crisis Could Save Your City
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 countri...
Popeonomics?
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The New Great Game?
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The world shifting under our feet and US financial markets remain in turmoil. We explore whether Trump’s economic war with China is backfiring,...
Paris, Power & Picking Sides: Europe’s Awakening in a MAGA World
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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, ...
The Molly Bloom Model: Why Economies Should Say Yes
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 explor...
The Nike Economy: Why Vietnam Is America’s Hidden Factory Floor
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Tariffs & Other Fantasies
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 d...
The Economics of Employee Ownership
06 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Jeffrey Goldberg Has Entered the Chat
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Did Ferris Bueller Predict the Trade War?
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Why Do Good People Make Bad Decisions?
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From Dublin’s housing crisis to stalled metros and blocked wind farms, this week’s episode explores how well-meaning people, and governments...
Trump's First 65 Days
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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’...
Trump, Putin & McGregor: Ukraine & the New World Order with Olesya Khromeychuk
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 tabl...
The Doonbeg Doctrine: Trump and the Chaos Economy
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 fr...
Is America the Next Big Short? With Michael Lewis
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Germany Wakes Up: Britain Breaks Out
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. Va...
Casement, Congo & the Comeback of Empire: Is Trump Reviving Imperialism?
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Neo-imperialism is marching, loud and proud, straight into the heart of global politics. Between Trump’s quiet dealmaking in Riyadh, to his open mus...
The King’s Gambit: DIY Declan, Trump’s Market Meltdown & Musk’s 18th-Century Twin
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do DIY stores, French financial bubbles, and Elon Musk have in common? Kicking off with a detour into The Pope’s Children and th...
Deutschland Dilemma: Voting Blocs, Power Shocks & the Bundeswehr Rocks with Katja Hoyer
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Germany’s latest election has sent shockwaves across Europe. The CDU has reasserted itself, but the far-right AfD continues to gain ground, fuelled ...
MAGA, Mercantilism & Mass Extinction: The Economics of a Shifting World Order
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Anxiety is in the air. Trump's latest outbursts underscore America’s shifting economic stance. Who knows if there is a method to the madness? In thi...
The Second Republic: Reinventing Ireland for the Future
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if we could start over? What if instead of just stitching the North onto the South, we reimagined the whole country. new flag, new anthem, even a...
The End of the Affair - Europe and America's Nasty Divorce
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The world as we know it is over. The post-Cold War order, the American-led security umbrella, the assumption that Europe will always be protected has ...
The Economics of the Merchant of Venice: Lessons from an Empire of Trade
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What can a city built on water teach us about the economics of the 21st century? In this episode, we dive into the economics of Venice, how a tiny rep...
Hard Liquor, Soft Power: The Death of Proportionality
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump has always been blunt about his transactional view of global politics but has he just accelerated the decline of American soft power? We ...
Trump, Tariffs & the Gold Rush: The McKinley Playbook
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do Donald Trump and William McKinley have in common? More than you might think. In this episode, we dig into the economic and political legacy of...