Tag Archives: David McWilliams

McDreamy: I Was Right (Again)

Admin at 7:46 pm March 23, 2012

Lot of revisonism re Bertie.In 2007 Q&A onnight he left.Not one panelist agreed on my negative assessmentbit.ly/GJyafe

— David McWilliams (@davidmcw) March 23, 2012

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F2x0iE3NKA

How right?

“I think that the last three or four years of Bertie Ahern’s reign he presided over a free-for-all in the economy which led to this extraordinary, unsustainable and now-reversing property boom which came to dominate everything, every single thing in this country. It dominated how people behaved, it dominated how people spent their money, it dominated how the banks lent their money and ultimately what I think is it sucked in all the resources of our country into one almost big bonfire of the vanities in property.

And I think history will judge him quite harshly because of that. Because here you have a situation where the man in charge instead of – and again I think it’s very important, you know, that ministers for finance, taoisigh, economists, whatever, you’ve got to act a wee bit like a doctor with a patient. There’s no point telling the patient you have cancer two days before the patient is about to die.

The idea is early intervention. Recognise the signs four or five years beforehand. Intervene properly. And the signs in Ireland were very, very simple, The economy was going out of control and that very, very effervescence was carrying us all along in this perception that, ‘Ah, you know, everything is hunky dory’, and we’ve been absorbing as many migrants as possible, we can drive house prices up and what we are left with and I think it’s a very serious problem now is a generation that is mortgaged with 40-year mortgages to live in houses which will not be worth anything like they paid the money for. And they will be lumbered with this [negative equity] and this is the most productive generation.

I’m not saying it’s not inconceivable that we can’t turn it around. I think it is. And I think that Brian [Cowen] can, other countries have been through the same thing…[interrupted and reminded by host John Bowman: “We’re on Bertie’s Legacy”]…Yes, Bertie’s legacy. I think that [property bubble] is a serious, serious black note because it takes a long time for societies to recover.”

Panellists included Ruairi Quinn, Mary Hanafin, random bald dude, and dark-haired women in red.

McDreamy’s Punk Economics Part Deux

Admin at 11:46 am February 24, 2012

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5z0rQRdsiE

Nothing to see here.

“So this forces the Greeks into a corner. Either Greece pays the banks or it’s on its own with a new Drachma. Anyone who knows anything about economics understands that the issue is not that Greece will default or might default it is that it won’t be allowed to default enough. ”

Look.

Pretty pictures.

DavidMcWilliams.Com

Meanwhile:

Before Greece is even given permission to bail out Europe’s banks, its creditors first demand that the province of Bavaria Sachs, formerly known as Greece, satisfy a checklist of 38 specific conditions, which the now fully colonized nation will have to complete before the end of the month (so in about 5 days), before it is permitted to transfer taxpayer cash to French, German, Italian and Spanish banks. How anyone, even the world’s most degraded debt slave, is willing to subject themselves to such humiliation is simply inconceivable.

Behold The Greek Debt Slavery “To Do” Checklist Permitting It To Bail Out Europe’s Insolvent Banks (ZeroHedge)

McDreamy’s Punk Economics: We’re Strangely Drawn

Admin at 10:47 am January 31, 2012

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAR0VRLRGHE&feature=player_embedded

“This is not a friendly union. It’s a vindictive, fiscal straight jacket.”

The Euro crisis explained using Catholicism, Marx, and Roy Keane.

Can you guess the theme song?

Earlier: The Sanest Story You’ll read All Morning

McDreamy’s Mega-Trend, 2012

Admin at 3:35 pm January 4, 2012

“This brings me to one of the huge or mega-trends which will affect us all this year. This mega-trend is that things are getting more expensive for poor people, while things are getting cheaper for richer people. Or, more accurately, the things that poor people spend relatively more of their income on are getting expensive, while things that rich people spend relatively more of their income on are getting cheaper. There is deflation for the rich and inflation for the poor and this is an extremely worrying development.

…I think about very rich people in Ireland who are already wealthy and have preserved this wealth in the downturn. For them the deflation, in very expensive houses for example, is an opportunity. It means that they can buy these assets right now, if they want to, for a song.They can also buy all sorts of upmarket, leisure gadgets much more cheaply relative to what they were years ago because Chinese competition is keeping the price of these things low and pushing them lower. So the ‘leisured’ class — the already wealthy — are seeing a fall in the price of goods which they spend relatively a lot of their cash on, while the poor are seeing a rise in the price of the goods that they spend relatively more on.”