Videos
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David McWilliams: The power of unconventional thinking -
David McWilliams: The Waterstones Interview -
Is this the end of the US dollar as the global reserve currency? | David McWilliams, Janne Teller
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RockED 2021 | David McWilliams - What James Joyce tells us about economics
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What happens when trust in money breaks down? Economist David McWilliams explains why this matters -
Trump's tariffs wreak havoc: David McWilliams explains how they were arrived at | Newstalk
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One of the world's most followed economists discusses what the future holds
Learn More About David McWilliams
David McWilliams is an economist, author, podcaster, journalist, documentarian and adjunct professor of global economics at Trinity College Dublin. He hosts The David McWilliams Podcast, which aims to make economics uncomplicated and accessible, and is Europe’s most successful economics podcast with 140,000 downloads per week and 42 million in total. He’s the founder of the world’s only economics and stand-up comedy festival, “Kilkenomics” — described by the Financial Times as “simply, the best economics conference in the world.” He also cofounded the Dalkey Book Festival, Ireland’s largest literary and ideas festival.
McWilliams’ latest book, “Money: A Story of Humanity,” an international bestseller, was named Book of the Year by the Economist, Financial Times and The Observer. “Money” received a coveted Star Review in the prestigious Kirkus Magazine, where David was described as “a clever and irreverant guide with a knack for turning economic concepts into easy conversation.” In addition, McWilliams has written five bestsellers, including “The Pope’s Children: Ireland’s New Elite,” “The Good Room,” “Follow the Money,” “The Generation Game,” “Renaissance Nation: How the Pope’s Children Rewrote the Rules for Ireland” and “Money: The Fifth Element.” He also writes a weekly column for The Irish Times and contributes regularly to The Financial Times.
McWilliams is the sixth most influential economist in the world, according to Richtopia. In a previous life, he had a few “real jobs,” working as an economist at the Irish Central Bank, UBS and Banque Nationale de Paris.
With the objective to make economics digestible and engaging for all, McWilliams draws on his unique sense of humor when he travels the globe speaking on growth trends, geopolitics, currencies, financial markets and the link between economics and the individual and cultural psyche. In all his speeches, McWilliams reaches beyond the conventional, challenging his audiences to think differently about the world, because it is in thinking differently that innovation and progress are bred.
In Ireland he is known as the first economist to identify the Irish boom as nothing more than a credit bubble, warning of its collapse and the consequences for the country. Consistently accurate in his forecasts, McWilliams was the only economist in Ireland who accurately forecast a strong UK Brexit vote, the Trump victory, and the 2008 global crash. Internationally, he has a reputation as a brilliant public speaker.
He studied economics at Trinity College Dublin and the College of Europe in Bruges.
David McWilliams is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group®.
"The Event was remarkably successful with over 600 attendees … David’s participation certainly enhanced the profile of our line-up of international speakers."
"David’s presentation was perfectly pitched and brought exactly what we had hoped…delivered with wit and intelligence in an engaging and entertaining style."
"David’s speech was fantastic and very well received by the audience. Many thanks to you and your team for assisting us in organising this wonderful conference."
Praise for "Money: A Story of Humanity"
"A breathtaking, expansive and imaginative ride through the history and future of money from an author who truly understands it."
"Exceptional."
"A cracking book that is as enjoyable as it is readable."
"Equally entertaining and insightful."
"An impressive journey that fizzes with facts."
"An eye-opening history of what makes the world go round."
"David McWilliams is the best explainer of economics I know. He's the kind of writer who makes you feel clever, because he helps you grasp the things you never understood before. "
"Compelling, funny and original."
"If, as David McWilliams complains, economists take the fun out of money, then he is the exception that proves the rule: a man who could not write a boring sentence if he tried, and who, in this brilliantly informative and entertaining book, has done his subject splendid justice."
"Money has found its greatest biographer. The subject of this book has spent most of its life on the run from being well understood. At least until now. In this swashbuckling epic of grand sweeps and tight close ups, David McWilliams brilliantly excavates the history of money, which is our history too. Evolution and revolution. He is a master storyteller of rare talent."
“‘Most economists do not really understand money… They take the fun out of it.’ Thus begins Irish economist David McWilliams’s rollicking ride through the pecuniary past. From the 20,000-year-old Ishango Bone (the first known accounting instrument) to today’s M-Pesa (Kenya’s mobile phone payments system), the reader is whisked at the speed of a Weimar printing press through the history of financial evolution. If Flann O’Brien and Milton Friedman had ever collaborated, this might have been the result. I was entertained. But I also learned.”
"It’s a crime, it can’t buy me love, it’s the root of all evil, it makes the world go around, it’s what I want. Money has long been the subject of song and sayings. And now, at last, we have The History of Money: a clear and endlessly fascinating explanation of what this is all about and how it all works."
