# "David McWilliams the most influential economist in the UK and Ireland"



## Brendan Burgess (2 Aug 2015)

http://www.cityam.com/221308/uk-eco...g-these-are-most-influential-economic-experts

"The list comprises active users of Twitter and other social media and their Klout scores. This Klout score is based derived based on from Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Instagram, Foursquare, Wikipedia as well as Klout."

Surely Brian Lucey must rank highly in any list which has David McWilliams at the top?


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## Purple (6 Aug 2015)

Should the award not be "Best Entertainer in Economics"? Or "Most Influential amongst people who don't understand what he's talking about"?
Like him or hate him he's a great communicator.  He's excellent at explaining things to the lay man.


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## demoivre (6 Aug 2015)

Interest rates will at some time in the future be higher than they are now. There, I'm great too.


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## Brendan Burgess (10 Sep 2015)

He is probably the most influential seanachaí, sorry, economist, in Ireland now that he has been appointed Professor at TCD

The Property Pin is very funny on the topic.  Scroll down to Sept 3rd. 

Brendan


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## jpd (10 Sep 2015)

Yup, well worth the read. Given the reading list, I guess I won't be signing up for that course


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## 44brendan (10 Sep 2015)

I just can't help categorizing David McWilliams as a one trick pony. He appears to delight in taking an opposing view to most other economists and has rated himself far too highly on his "I told you so" mantra on the property tiger collapse. While his prediction was accurate it was initially given well in advance of the bubble economy and "even a stopped clock is right twice a day". we have plenty of good professional economists who provide in-depth analysis of their theories rather than sound bites. However Economics is boring stuff and therefore the presentation style of McWilliams would prove more influential than the more sedate and accurate style of the likes of Brian Lucey (With apologies to Brian for any inference of being boring  )


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## Firefly (10 Sep 2015)

How anyone can rate the bould McWilliams ahead of Tim Hartford in the FT is beyond me...


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## Duke of Marmalade (10 Sep 2015)

44brendan said:


> However Economics is boring stuff and therefore the presentation style of McWilliams would prove more influential than the more sedate and accurate style of the likes of Brian Lucey (With apologies to Brian for any inference of being boring  )


Actually he will get on very well with Brian.  David likes folk to think outside the box and there ain't been anything so quite outside  the box as Professor Lucey's advice (on radio and in press) that Anglo should sell its €27bn of deposits for €20bn thus making a handsome profit of €47bn (I kid you not, what his colleague Karl Whelan dubbed a "deposit selling" moment, who can honestly say they haven't had one?). 

Hey, that even beats David's advice that a major insurance company "would bite your hand off" to insure the Bank Guarantee

Boy we are going to get some outside the box champions coming from Trinity.


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## Brendan Burgess (10 Sep 2015)

Duke of Marmalade said:


> David's advice that a major insurance company "would bite your hand off" to insure the Bank Guarantee



Hi Duke

I didn't know about that. Do you have a link to it? 

Brendan


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## postman pat (10 Sep 2015)

as the old joke goes... god invented economists to make weathermen look good


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## Duke of Marmalade (11 Sep 2015)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Hi Duke
> 
> I didn't know about that. Do you have a link to it?
> 
> Brendan


Can't find any link _Boss_.  Possibly he said it on the radio, but he said it alright.


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## demoivre (23 Sep 2015)

Duke of Marmalade said:


> Prof McWilliams



I was genuinely astounded at this announcement by TCD. MBA students will see fairly quickly this spoofer for what he is imo. Pity the masses can't, which is what he relies on.


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## Protocol (23 Sep 2015)

Note that TCD have adopted the US approach of calling all lecturers "professors".

So in TCD you have:

assistant profs
associate profs
full profs

To be a real professor, you would need maybe 20 years of academic output.

In NUIG, UCC, etc., only the top academics are called professors, and you must be appointed to this role, based on outstanding academic output.

In reality, DMW is a "part-time lecturer", paid per hour or per module.


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## Protocol (23 Sep 2015)

List of economics staff at TCD.

DMW is not on the list.


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## Protocol (23 Sep 2015)

I don't see him in the School of Business, either.


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## Duke of Marmalade (26 Oct 2015)

I see our new Guvnor is Professor Philip Lane.  A safe and capable pair of hands.  I presume Professor McWilliams was asking for too high a price for surely otherwise he was a shoe in.


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## Conan (27 Oct 2015)

I suspect it is must easier to pontificate on economic policy in articles in the Indo than to implement economic policy in the Central Bank. We all saw how DMcW's policy advice to Brain Lenehan worked out in practice!!!!


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## KlausFlouride (29 Oct 2015)

In fairness to McWilliams, he aims to demystify economics and make it interesting for ordinary schlubs. Economics is common sense tarted up in jargon, the old joke about getting a one handed economist springs to mind.


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## Duke of Marmalade (30 Oct 2015)

KlausFlouride said:


> In fairness to McWilliams, he aims to demystify economics and make it interesting for ordinary schlubs. Economics is common sense tarted up in jargon, the old joke about getting a one handed economist springs to mind.


I agree that Prof McW's ideas cut to the chase and have an obvious appeal for schlubs.  Just a few examples:

1. Confiscate 10% of Multi Nationals' assets  (70bn)
2. Exit the Euro
3. Forgive all mortgages
4. Give a blanket guarantee for all bank liabilities
5. Insure this guarantee with a leading international insurer

etc. etc.

(4) was the only one of these brilliant ideas that was actually taken up.


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## Brendan Burgess (30 Oct 2015)

Duke of Marmalade said:


> 3. Forgive all mortgages



Duke - don't exaggerate. I don't think he said this.  He wanted an effective write down of negative equity, which he called "debt for equity". 

Brendan


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## Brendan Burgess (30 Oct 2015)

KlausFlouride said:


> the old joke about getting a one handed economist springs to mind.



Hi Klaus

Funny as that joke might appear to be, the reality is that things are not as simple as one handed economists like McWilliams make them out to be. 

Take the bank guarantee. If you read his articles before, during and after the bank guarantee, it was a no risk exercise which would not cost the state a cent.  Two handed economists did point out the pros and cons of the guarantee. But for McWilliams there was no con. 

I prefer the two handed economists myself. 

Brendan


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## johnsmyth (21 Nov 2015)

I had the sad misfortune to have to sit through a recent speech of the David McWilliams. He was boring and spoke in cliches. I learned nothing new nor was i entertained. Awful awful stuff.


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