David McWilliams
Encyclopedia
David McWilliams is an Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...

. McWilliams has worked with as an economist with Central Bank of Ireland and as a banker with UBS bank
UBS AG
UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland...

 and the Banque Nationale de Paris. More recently, he has become a broadcaster and documentary-maker with TV3 and Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...

 (RTÉ), as well as publishing three books, The Pope's Children
The Pope's Children
The Pope's Children: Ireland's New Elite is a book by journalist and economist David McWilliams.In his book McWilliams describes the effects that the Celtic Tiger and the property boom have had on the Republic of Ireland, resulting in the rise of a new bourgeoise.The book's title reflects...

,
The Generation Game, and Follow the Money.

McWilliams has called for a radical change in currency, arguing that Ireland should abandon the Euro project and establish a new punt.
McWilliams has also called for a different approach to the current crisis in Ireland, including a demand for a more aggressive negotiating stance with the European Union, the creation of an alliance between Ireland, Greece, Portugal and other debtor nations, default on the Irish bank debts (€97 bn) held by the ECB and exploiting the deposits of multinational companies in the IFSC as a stimulus. He has also expressed a number of ideas about political reform, including extending the vote to the Irish diaspora.

Early and Private life

McWilliams was born in Dun Laoghaire in 1966 and was raised in Windsor Park, Monkstown, Dublin. His father, of Scottish descent, worked in a Chemical and Paint factory but was unemployed for long periods while David was growing up. His Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...

-born mother was a teacher in Bray
Bray
Bray is a town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is a busy urban centre and seaside resort, with a population of 31,901 making it the fourth largest in Ireland as of the 2006 census...

. He is married to Sian Smyth, a former Corporate Lawyer, from near Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. McWilliams himself is a Roman Catholic. He lives in Dublin.

Education

McWilliams attended Blackrock College
Blackrock College
Blackrock College is a Catholic voluntary secondary school for boys aged 14–18, located in Williamstown, Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland. The College was founded by French missionaries in 1860, to act as a school and civil service training centre. Set in of grounds, it has an illustrious...

 in Dublin. He then graduated from Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

, with a degree in economics, as well as from the College of Europe
College of Europe
The College of Europe is an independent university institute of postgraduate European studies with the main campus in Bruges, Belgium...

, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 (late 1980s).

1990 through 2002

Between 1990 and 1993 he worked as an economist at the Central Bank of Ireland. At 27, McWilliams moved to London to work at UBS
UBS AG
UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland...

 in emerging markets analysis.

At the ages of 30-31, still in London, McWilliams worked for Banque Nationale de Paris.
From 1999 to 2002, he was an emerging markets
Emerging markets
Emerging markets are nations with social or business activity in the process of rapid growth and industrialization. Based on data from 2006, there are around 28 emerging markets in the world . The economies of China and India are considered to be the largest...

 strategist with a New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

-based hedge fund, Rockwest Capital.

Writing and broadcasting

Since returning to work in Ireland in 2002, McWilliams has been mostly working in journalism and the media. He presented a current affairs programme called Agenda on TV3
TV3 Ireland
TV3 is a free-to-air commercial television network in the Republic of Ireland. Launched on 20 September 1998 it was Ireland's first commercial broadcaster. The channel is owned by TV3 Group a subsidiary of Doughty Hanson & Co.-The TV3 Group:...

 and has also presented that station's coverage of the Irish General Election
Irish general election, 2002
The Irish general election of 2002 was held on Friday, 17 May 2002 just over three weeks after the dissolution of the 28th Dáil on Thursday 25 April by President Mary McAleese, at the request of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern...

 in 2002. He hosted the breakfast show on NewsTalk 106
NewsTalk 106
Newstalk is an Independent Radio station in Ireland. It is operated by News 106 Limited, a subsidiary of Denis O'Brien's Communicorp group, and broadcasts under a sound broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.The station is a "quasi-national" station as of 29 September...

, a Dublin radio station, from the station's beginning in 2002 until the station replaced him by Eamon Dunphy
Eamon Dunphy
Eamon Martin Dunphy is an Irish media personality, radio and television presenter, author, sports pundit, as well as a former professional football player. He is best known as a soccer analyst on Raidió Teilifís Éireann 's coverage of the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League. He was paid...

 in September 2004. Soon after, McWilliams started presenting The Big Bite, a topical afternoon discussion programme on the television station RTÉ One
RTÉ One
RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ...

. He is also a regular columnist in The Sunday Business Post
The Sunday Business Post
The Sunday Business Post is an Irish national Sunday newspaper published by Post Publications Limited. Post Publications is owned by Thomas Crosbie Holdings. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Ireland, the average weekly circulation was 57,783 for the period January to June 2009. The...

and Irish Independent
Irish Independent
The Irish Independent is Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper that is published in both compact and broadsheet formats. It is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media.-History:...

newspapers. Past articles from the paper are available from his website, as well as his monthly subscription newsletter, The David McWilliams Agenda.

In February 2006 he wrongly accused fans of Shamrock Rovers of instigating the 2006 Dublin riots
2006 Dublin riots
The 2006 Dublin riots were a series of riots which occurred in Dublin on 25 February 2006, precipitated by a proposed controversial march down O'Connell Street of a unionist demonstration. The disturbances began when members of An Garda Síochána attempted to disperse a group of...

.

In November 2006, RTÉ One
RTÉ One
RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ...

 broadcast In Search of the Pope's Children
In Search of the Pope's Children
In Search of the Pope's Children is an Irish television programme based on the book The Pope's Children, aired by the state broadcaster RTÉ and British broadcaster BBC Four. The programme is a three-part true lives documentary, presented by economist David McWilliams. The show comments on the Irish...

, a three-part series examining the economic and social landscape of modern Ireland. It was presented by David McWilliams and based on his book, The Pope's Children
The Pope's Children
The Pope's Children: Ireland's New Elite is a book by journalist and economist David McWilliams.In his book McWilliams describes the effects that the Celtic Tiger and the property boom have had on the Republic of Ireland, resulting in the rise of a new bourgeoise.The book's title reflects...

. The book has attracted controversy because of claims, published on 29 January 2006 by the newspaper Ireland on Sunday, that it is based on a book written in 2000 by David Brooks
David Brooks
David Brooks may refer to:* David Brooks , American actor and stage director and producer* David Brooks , Australian author of short stories and co-editor for Southerly...

, Bobos in Paradise – The New Upper Class And How They Got There.

Publisher John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...

 picked up North American rights to The Pope's Children
The Pope's Children
The Pope's Children: Ireland's New Elite is a book by journalist and economist David McWilliams.In his book McWilliams describes the effects that the Celtic Tiger and the property boom have had on the Republic of Ireland, resulting in the rise of a new bourgeoise.The book's title reflects...

and published the new edition in the United States in February 2008 with a new foreword.

McWilliams' subsequent book The Generation Game was launched in mid-September 2007. It discussed many of Ireland’s ailments, including the predominance of property in the economy of the Republic of Ireland
Economy of the Republic of Ireland
The economy of Ireland has transformed in recent years from an agricultural focus to a modern knowledge economy, focusing on services and high-tech industries and dependent on trade, industry and investment. In terms of GDP per capita, Ireland is ranked as one of the wealthiest countries in the...

 and the relation of Ireland to Europe and the world. The book is accompanied with a three-part television documentary series of the same name.

McWilliams has also hosted Leviathan: Political Cabaret
Leviathan: Political Cabaret
Leviathan: Political Cabaret is a regular debate and discussion event in Dublin, Ireland which is usually hosted by economist, writer and broadcaster, David McWilliams in Dublin's Button Factory...

, a live discussion and satire event which has featured at the Electric Picnic
Electric Picnic
The 2005 festival took place on Saturday 3 September and Sunday 4 September. It is best remembered for Arcade Fire's performance which came before their subsequent mainstream success...

 festival in 2006 and 2007.

Political and economic views

Generally, McWilliams is an admirer of the free-market ideas of monetarist school
Monetarism
Monetarism is a tendency in economic thought that emphasizes the role of governments in controlling the amount of money in circulation. It is the view within monetary economics that variation in the money supply has major influences on national output in the short run and the price level over...

 economist Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...

, as "very much the kernel of most mainstream economic thinking these days", even if Friedman was "not always spot-on". McWilliams also argues that Ireland's wealth is becoming more evenly distributed. He cites Eurostat
Eurostat
Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in Luxembourg. Its main responsibilities are to provide the European Union with statistical information at European level and to promote the integration of statistical methods across the Member States of the European Union,...

 figures which indicate that Ireland is just above average in terms of equality by one type of measurement.

Ireland and the recession

McWilliams sees it possible that Ireland can default
Default (finance)
In finance, default occurs when a debtor has not met his or her legal obligations according to the debt contract, e.g. has not made a scheduled payment, or has violated a loan covenant of the debt contract. A default is the failure to pay back a loan. Default may occur if the debtor is either...

 on its debt:
Could the unthinkable come to pass here? Could Ireland default on its sovereign debt? The answer is yes. Such a disaster is now quite possible. In the same way as a family can end up losing the house, the car, everything, a country, too, can fail to make its repayments.


McWilliams favours radical regime change following the 2008 banking crisis in Ireland:
In the banks at the very top, we have complicity, incompetence, cronyism and we have corruption. … A lot of people did nothing, while bankers took their fees. We have to be adult. We have to take responsibility for what we do. Nurses, policemen and schoolteachers are being asked to pay for second holidays in the Algarve. The average person must demand a new regime that has absolute no connection to the old regime. That is what we mean by being courageous. We have to be logical. We are part of the global world. Its standards have to be our standards.

Ireland and the European Union

McWilliams questions Ireland's continued participation in the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union
Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union
The Economic and Monetary Union is an umbrella term for the group of policies aimed at converging the economies of members of the European Union in three stages so as to allow them to adopt a single currency, the euro. As such, it is largely synonymous with the eurozone.All member states of the...

 in his books. In an interview with Irish broadcaster Marian Finucane
Marian Finucane
Marian Finucane is an Irish broadcaster with Raidió Teilifís Éireann . She has worked with the national broadcaster since in 1976, starting as a continuity announcer. She was the first presenter of Liveline...

, on RTÉ
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...

 (17 January 2009) and reported in the international press, McWilliams argues:
What I am saying is, that in Europe, if Ireland continues hurtling down this road, which is close to default, the whole of Europe will be badly affected, the credibility of the euro will be badly affected. .. It is very essential that we go to Europe and say we have a serious problem. … the way we get out of this is either - there are two options – either, we default, or we pull out of the euro. Both of which are a disaster for us, but even a consequent disaster for the European project. We need to go to Europe and say we need more financial solidarity. If we have a single currency, there are obligations and responsibilities on both sides. The idea that France and Germany can just hang us out to dry - as has been the talk the past few days - should not be taken lying down.


McWilliams suggests that Ireland could threaten its European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 partners in relation to the Treaty of Lisbon
Treaty of Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza....

 (2008):
This is a war. The best way to look at this is how do countries that are under attack defend themselves... The first thing we have to be is incredibly courageous. And that means doing things that are unthinkable on the economic front. No small country
Small open economy
A small open economy, abbreviated to SOE, is an economy that participates in international trade, but is small enough compared to its trading partners that its policies do not alter world prices, interest rates, or incomes. Thus, the countries with small open economies are price takers...

 has ever got out of a debt crisis without changing its exchange rate. This is complete heresy at the moment in Ireland. People say that we are wedded to the euro and that the euro is absolutely essential. Now that was fine, as long as that we were able to pay our bills. Now that we can't pay our bills, there is an argument for being more aggressive in Europe. And when I say aggressive, we have a Lisbon vote coming up, and the Europeans are obsessed with us passing it. So therefore we have leverage in Europe.

Bank Guarantee

McWilliams was initially supportive of the bank guarantee of September 2008, claiming that options such as a toxic bank or nationalization were the wrong option, stating that

The only option is to guarantee 100 per cent of all depositors/creditors in the Irish banking system. This guarantee does not extend to shareholders who will have to live with the losses they have suffered. However, it applies to everyone else.

If the minister does this, he will not only staunch any funds outflow, he will show leadership and be seen as someone who is coming up with a solution that can be copied all over the world.

Ireland in the past has done things that no other country has done, to great effect. Think of the zero tax rate on exporters in the 1970s and the 12.5 per cent tax rate on multinationals now.

These were solo initiatives - we didn’t wait for them to work in other countries, and they worked perfectly well here. This proves that we can think for ourselves. Once more, and possibly even more crucially, we need to think for ourselves now.


However he has since claimed that the bank guarantee was a bad idea, saying:


Rescind the guarantee. It was due to expire last September and was always supposed to be temporary. It also should have been limited; it should not have covered subordinated debt, which always gets wiped out in a banking crisis. (Subordinated debt is buffer capital that never gets protected which is precisely why it offers higher interest rates in the first place.) The guarantee was required, 28 months ago, to prevent a total bank collapse. This guarantee should not have been open-ended and all-encompassing. It should have copied the Swiss and Swedish model, where those countries lent the credibility of the state to the banks.

Unfortunately, our Government didn’t so much lend the State’s credibility to the banks as give it to them unconditionally.

On NAMA, Ireland's "bad bank"

McWilliams has also held slightly differing views on whether a "bad bank" should be set up to deal with Irish banks' non-performing loans. The National Asset Management Agency
National Asset Management Agency
The National Asset Management Agency is a body created by the Government of Ireland in late 2009. It is in response to the Irish financial crisis and the deflation of the Irish property bubble....

 (NAMA) was set up in 2009. In late 2008 he had said that, providing the banks were reformed:


One idea is to divide our banks into good and bad banks. We could set up one or two bad banks, which would be “financial skips” into which we throw all our bad loans. These could then be restructured and traded by the State, using specialist, restructuring experts. The huge land banks, sites and commercial developments that are now worthless could be traded at, let’s say, 20 cent in the euro.


In 2009 McWilliams criticised NAMA as proposed, and was in turn criticised by Brian Lenihan
Brian Lenihan, Jnr
Brian Joseph Lenihan was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and barrister who served in the government of Ireland as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform from 2007 to 2008 and as Minister for Finance from 2008 to 2011...

. By October 2009 he reported approvingly in an interview with Joseph Stiglitz:


When asked whether he would implement a Nama-style bailout for the banks, he responded: ‘‘No, this is the kind of highway robbery which we see happening all over the world, with guns pointing at the heads of the political leaders and the bankers claiming the sky will fall down and the economy will be devastated unless they get this money."

Popular culture

  • McWilliams' style and accent, and reputation from Trinity College
    Trinity College, Dublin
    Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

     student days have led some commentators to believe he is the archetypal role model for Paul Howard's Ross O'Carroll-Kelly
    Ross O'Carroll-Kelly
    Ross O'Carroll-Kelly is a fictional wealthy "D4" rugby union player created by journalist Paul Howard.The character first appeared in a January 1998 column in the Sunday Tribune newspaper and later transferred to The Irish Times...

     series of books. He is also frequently lampooned in the satire magazine The Phoenix
    The Phoenix (magazine)
    The Phoenix is Ireland's best selling political and current affairs magazine. Inspired by the British magazine Private Eye, and a source of investigative journalism in Ireland...

    .
  • However in radio interviews, McWilliams has emphasised his humble origins, notably that his father was unemployed.
  • Comments are occasionally made on McWillams' capacity for self-publicity, describing him as the David Beckham
    David Beckham
    David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...

     of Irish media.
  • McWilliams has been 'twinned' with David Caruso
    David Caruso
    David Stephen Caruso is an American film and television actor and producer, best known for his role of Lieutenant Horatio Caine on the TV series CSI: Miami. The role that gained him initial significant recognition was the role of Det...

     by some elements of the Irish media, mostly in reference to Caruso's CSI: Miami
    CSI: Miami
    CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....

     character.

Awards

In January 2007, McWilliams was selected as one of 250 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....

.

External links

  • Official website
  • David McWilliams at the Irish Independent
    Irish Independent
    The Irish Independent is Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper that is published in both compact and broadsheet formats. It is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media.-History:...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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