The David McWilliams Podcast

Putin's back, swanning around the Gulf visiting Saudi Arabia and the UAE, telling the world that he was never really away. Things are going his way. Meanwhile America, is swamped with recurring geopolitical crises and its role as the global top dog is under enormous pressure as we head into an election year. 2024 could be the year of a global infection point, we set out the issues.

We mark the death of Shane MacGowan by looking at the Irish Diaspora, particularly in England and its impact on English popular culture. From there we look at Ireland's relationship with its Tribe abroad and from there, we imagine what a 2nd Irish Republic will look like (which will happen because it's necessary) and the role of the diaspora in this thinking.

Liberal democracy in the western world is all too often taken for granted. But its enemies, nationalists, theocrats, Marxists and isolationists - are rising. Will Israel become a "wedge" issue? Also, why we should defend it and what the erosion of commercial liberalism in China is doing to its economic performance. What does 2024 has in store for the best political idea we've come up with yet, liberal democracy.

After the riot, the analysis. We look at the power of crowds, why crowds love destruction, why they grow and how they the dissipate. Plus, of course the economics of the Irish far right, we look at the numbers, who are they and why they are here to stay.

From tantric sex expert to President, Javier “chainsaw” Melei is a new type of populist - and anarchy-capitalist one! What does this mean, is this guy libertarianism’s answer to Che Guevara? And where will “dollarisation” take this beautiful but profoundly dysfunctional country?

The board of Chat GPT may be firing its CEO, but that doesn't mean this revolution is slowing down. A whistle wind tour from the dawn of time with Stanley Kubrick, to Gutenberg in 1453, and up to now, we look at the economics of innovation. With AI are we now facing catastrophe or a creative surge? Listen up, as we explore the economics of AI.

Anti-semitism, inflation, threats to democracy, despotic leaders and fragile governments, if you thought it was today, its is - but hold on. It's happened before... This very month 100 years ago, German hyperinflation peaked, Adolf Hitler announced himself with a putsch and anti-semitism was rife. History is repeating itself, or is it? Join us on this epic journey back in time to see what we can learn and whether we can apply any historical remedies to today's global problems.

Today we kick-off a new three part series that looks at the state of the big economic blocs in the world. Part one is the state of the US as it enters an election year. Plus we scan the UK and the EU, briefly. We call this world the NATO-sphere for obvious reasons. Next up in this series, we will deal with the impact of AI and third we will look at China the link between economics & liberalism. Our first conversation is around US economy, the rate of interest, inflation and the miracle of recent US economic performance, which is challenging our understanding of macroeconomics.

How is the Israeli tail is wagging the American dog? America's election is exactly one year from now and Joe Biden is in bed with Netanyahu, but his own party, the Democratic Party is deeply divided by his embrace of Israel. He has given Netanyahu his blessing, but he can't influence the outcome in Gaza. This emasculation, combined with the end of the 0% interest rate days where previous "stars" are falling to earth - WeWork goes bankrupt, NFTs blinds people and SBF gets convicted - and we have a perfect storm, economically and geo-politically, raging. All this before we talk about Donald Trump. Strap up!