Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on [email protected] for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact [email protected]

David McWilliams Podcast

1468910

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭completedit


    I honestly think we forget that we aren't the be all and end all. We will suffer but our future descendants will gain from this upheaval. The prolem is that we will never gain from the changes, or only benefit slightly. But I believe we are on a march towards a better future. I see increased skepticism towards capitalism, not that capitalism is wrong, but the type of neoliberal capitalism we have has destroyed our planet. Time for revolution. And the revolution is coming.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    It won't be coming in Ireland tho, at least not to start. As a small open economy Ireland has pegged its colours to servicing the global corporations.




  • Interesting spat with the finance minister in the latest episode. Not sure what to make of it.

    David states,"You only take flak when you are over the target". Reminds me of something Ewan McKenna would say after spewing nonsense and rightly getting push back. McWilliams repeats this mantra in many different ways. It's a little unsettling. Just because you are being criticised, that does not prove that you are right. I frankly don't know enough about economics to say if either side is correct in this argument (my bias is to side with McWilliams). McWilliams says we should deal with the short term and forgot about the long term. I feel like this goes against what he has been preaching to date.

    Anybody have a second opinion?


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭completedit


    In the long term we are all dead




  • In the long term we are all dead

    Sun explodes engulfing the Earth, gotcha


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 344 ✭✭Dont Be at It


    He needs to stop pushing it..


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,935 ✭✭✭ballsymchugh


    Interesting spat with the finance minister in the latest episode. Not sure what to make of it.

    David states,"You only take flak when you are over the target". Reminds me of something Ewan McKenna would say after spewing nonsense and rightly getting push back. McWilliams repeats this mantra in many different ways. It's a little unsettling. Just because you are being criticised, that does not prove that you are right. I frankly don't know enough about economics to say if either side is correct in this argument (my bias is to side with McWilliams). McWilliams says we should deal with the short term and forgot about the long term. I feel like this goes against what he has been preaching to date.

    Anybody have a second opinion?

    i thought it was more a dig at civil servants and academics in the dept of finance who've never worked in the real world etc spiel that you get every so often.
    the same kind of argument for putting Michael O'Leary in as health minister etc.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,893 ✭✭✭Poor_old_gill


    What he's saying is it's all about cash flow from an individual & economy wide perspective - if we don't secure a positive cash flow in the short term then we will all go out of business anyway.

    It's genuinely not the complex or far-out of an economic concept which is why he, and others, are getting so frustrated with the DOF's inability to grasp what is going on here.

    If anyone has time - do a bit of reading on the Great Depression & the mistakes made at the time - as we could be sleep walking into the same situation with our current approach.




  • I kinda get lost when they talk about interest rates


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,529 ✭✭✭dubrov


    If anyone has time - do a bit of reading on the Great Depression & the mistakes made at the time - as we could be sleep walking into the same situation with our current approach.

    Economists are great at telling us all about the mistakes of the past but pretty poor about predicting the mistakes of the future.

    For this recession, the general consensus seems to pump money into the economy. No one knows yet if it will work well without any unexpected side effects


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 2,893 ✭✭✭Poor_old_gill


    dubrov wrote: »
    Economists are great at telling us all about the mistakes of the past but pretty poor about predicting the mistakes of the future.

    For this recession, the general consensus seems to pump money into the economy. No one knows yet if it will work well without any unexpected side effects

    Economists use that mistakes of the past to help inform future policy & this is what is happening here.

    The last paragraph- general consensus isn’t pump money in as we don’t look like we’ll take that approach & of course no one knows as nothing has happened yet.

    If we don’t prop up the economy now then there’ll be f*ckall to worry about anyway as we’ll be goosed.

    We need to keep small & medium business going as otherwise our tax take will be completely shot.

    What’s being advocated is, more or less, a form of capital expenditure with the intention that it will reap benefits, over the life of the debt, that will outweigh the cost of the debt.

    However if we do nothing and let businesses go to the wall then we’ll have no chance of even meeting our current expenditure not to mind anything else.


  • Registered Users Posts: 107 ✭✭1 sheep2


    ...the DOF's inability to grasp what is going on here.

    Groan.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,595 ✭✭✭dr.kenneth noisewater


    Fairly mad statement that Ireland could have had 30 million people living on the island if it wasn't for the famine


  • Registered Users Posts: 964 ✭✭✭radharc


    Fairly mad statement that Ireland could have had 30 million people living on the island if it wasn't for the famine

    What was mad about it?


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,397 ✭✭✭CBear1993


    Thought it was interesting the lad Cunningham he had on. Fine Gael went from 21% in the opinion polls pre Covid to %36 now. Highest increase of any political party during this lockdown. Madness.

    Only my opinion - I’ve no love for FG. But this would indicate that a lot of Irish people are sheep and will believe Anything they see on tv and what their friends are thinking.
    Because Leo and Simon have talked to kids at their level through the tv, and quoted movies and poems, they’ve won people over. Plus the whole mantra of “they’re playing a blinder”.

    Mad really. People can’t be trusted to vote based on that. If we held an election right now - they’d vote back in FG whereas in February leo was out on his ars* ??? We’re no better off than other countries of similar size when looking at deaths per capita but your average Joe just ignores this completely




  • CBear1993 wrote: »

    Only my opinion - I’ve no love for FG. But this would indicate that a lot of Irish people are sheep and will believe Anything they see on tv and what their friends are thinking.
    Because Leo and Simon have talked to kids at their level through the tv, and quoted movies and poems, they’ve won people over. Plus the whole mantra of “they’re playing a blinder”.

    Mad really. People can’t be trusted to vote based on that. If we held an election right now - they’d vote back in FG whereas in February leo was out on his ars* ???
    Herd mentality of voters in all its glory with pandemic.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,397 ✭✭✭CBear1993


    Wasn’t as interesting today. Very America focused. Bit boring apart from explaining how we can’t go back to 1980s Ireland. He seems very optimistic about post Covid for the multinationals and pharma industry but doesn’t say much about the rest


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭completedit


    He is right about the doom and gloom. We need to start signalling more upbeat messages so that we don't end up in a self-made mess with people reeling in spending out of some fear of the vengeful economy unleashing its wrath


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,534 ✭✭✭Chalk McHugh


    Anyone listen to the latest podcast? I thought it was pure nonsense. Couldn't understand a lot of it but he seemed to be saying we should invest the profits of corporation tax in the people and gamble it on the markets. When he started talking about Chimpanze's skin being pink under their black hair i couldn't exit the pod quick enough.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,397 ✭✭✭CBear1993


    I did find them interesting initially and even had a look on his Patreon, but the last few weeks I feel like he's bringing up the same material and points from the previous week in a wishy washy way....maybe we just aren't economics heads!!! :pac:


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 566 ✭✭✭ngunners


    CBear1993 wrote: »
    I did find them interesting initially and even had a look on his Patreon, but the last few weeks I feel like he's bringing up the same material and points from the previous week in a wishy washy way....maybe we just aren't economics heads!!! :pac:

    I find them very hit or miss and feel most episodes would be seriously improved if they were kept to half an hour. Lots of interesting points and discussion but much of it gets drowned out in waffle.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,534 ✭✭✭Chalk McHugh


    I cant stop thinking of hairless pink cihmpanzee's all morning. Think i'll give this pod a miss for a wee while.


  • Registered Users Posts: 653 ✭✭✭bamayang


    ngunners wrote: »
    I find them very hit or miss and feel most episodes would be seriously improved if they were kept to half an hour. Lots of interesting points and discussion but much of it gets drowned out in waffle.

    I always skip to about 7th minute so I don’t have to listen to the obligatory “well head...” ****e


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    McWilliams podcasts are like his articles - pretty much a re-hash of the same ideas every few weeks.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,232 ✭✭✭✭Arghus


    I find him interesting to listen to, but I don't know if I can take him seriously as an economist. He's a bit Hollywood. I think he spins very palatable stories and does a good job of narrativising things, but I don't know how rigourous his thinking is at times. I'm a bit suspicious that he never seems to take into account unforseen complexity or unplanned events in his theories about what should be done. It all seems a little too easy - there's a dose of arrogance in that sometimes. He prefers to think about the sexy big picture, rather than the boring numbers. Which is fine and entertaining, but I'd still take it with a pinch of salt.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10 PodcastReview


    David McWilliams, ****ing hell so we've come full circle.

    At least a stopped clock is nice to look at.


  • Registered Users Posts: 436 ✭✭Robert McGrath


    glasso wrote: »
    McWilliams podcasts are like his articles - pretty much a re-hash of the same ideas every few weeks.

    Yep. This week’s ideas sounded very familiar. Interview with the Indian UN dude was good, though


  • Registered Users Posts: 436 ✭✭Robert McGrath


    Anyone else think DMcW’s friend from the Caribbean sounded a bit like a Brexiter?

    A large part of her complaint seemed to be that the EU treats its own member states more favourably than countries outside the EU.

    Ehhhhh, yes ... that’s kind of the point of an economic and political union. The US federal government treats Delaware and Maine and Kentucky differently to Ireland. The UK govt treats Scotland differently to France. Really not sure what she was getting at.

    Disappointed that McW didn’t even gently challenge her on it


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,578 ✭✭✭djemba djemba


    Anyone else think DMcW’s friend from the Caribbean sounded a bit like a Brexiter?

    A large part of her complaint seemed to be that the EU treats its own member states more favourably than countries outside the EU.

    Ehhhhh, yes ... that’s kind of the point of an economic and political union. The US federal government treats Delaware and Maine and Kentucky differently to Ireland. The UK govt treats Scotland differently to France. Really not sure what she was getting at.

    Disappointed that McW didn’t even gently challenge her on it

    Yeah I thought the same when I was listening to it.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 2,893 ✭✭✭Poor_old_gill


    Anyone else think DMcW’s friend from the Caribbean sounded a bit like a Brexiter?

    A large part of her complaint seemed to be that the EU treats its own member states more favourably than countries outside the EU.

    Ehhhhh, yes ... that’s kind of the point of an economic and political union. The US federal government treats Delaware and Maine and Kentucky differently to Ireland. The UK govt treats Scotland differently to France. Really not sure what she was getting at.

    Disappointed that McW didn’t even gently challenge her on it

    Agreed- it was complete nonsense.
    All hidden behind not so thinly veiled suggestions of neo-colonialism/racism.

    The whole point of trade agreements is that they have to be mutually beneficial and she didn’t seem to really push forward anything that could benefit the EU- disappointing podcast overall to be honest.

    I think the standard has started to drop in recent times & the Patreon subscribers getting an explainer every 2 weeks for a €10er is not cutting the mustard for me in terms of additional content!

    I think I’ll just go back to being a listener to the free stuff


Advertisement