David McWilliams (1) (1966–)

This accompanied a tv series that I unfortunately / fortunately missed. There is a lot of potential here for launching rants from me (and may later, elsewhere); because he hits some sensitive points, some I agree with and some I would disagree with. Then again I have a suspicion that we're not in agreement politics wise.

This is a look at the Irish and how we're overextended in credit and heading for a recession. Not a difficult thing to predict and some of the points he makes about the ruling class/politicians being out of contact with the general populous sounds like the truth to me. Ireland has to face up to some of it's forthcoming problems. I think Mr McWilliams has a somewhat simplistic view of the way things work.

I found the first two thirds interesting but the last third just made me quite annoyed with his rampant generalisations.… (mehr)

There are interesting snippets and quips in this one but I think he simplifies things way too much. Yes he has some points in that Irish people are spending too much and not thinking about the future but he seems to want to pretend that he's above all this and he isn't, he's part of it. Indeed protectionism failed Ireland and the rampant emigration that plagued this country until the 90's still has scars but things can't be as simple or as meaningless as he makes it out to be. At one stage he's complaining about stereotypes and at another he's enforcing them. Yes Dublin is a traffic disaster but only forward thinking, reliable public transport can save that mess. Yes people own too much and have re-mortgaged their re-mortgage but that's because of the way the taxes are set up and the fact that this country encourages dishonesty.
Interesting but needs a decent dose of salt with it. It earned a few extra points for making me chuckle. It also apparently echoes an American economist.… (mehr)