David McWilliams
Author and journalist David McWilliams (b.1966) predicted the collapse of Ireland’s economy grown too dependent on a real estate bubble as early as 2006. A qualified economist, he worked for the Central Bank of Ireland, UBS and French bank BNP before becoming a full-time journalist, notably with a regular column in the Irish Independent. The author of national best-sellers on economic issues and a popular television presenter, he is also a co-founder of Leviathan, a satirical cabaret review which calls for the renewal of Irish political life with a new constitution i.e. a second Irish Republic.
Updated: 17 May 2010
In Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the EU and the IMF are living in their own fantasy of countries cured by austerity. But behind this facade, we’re beginning to see the reality of Europe’s banks filled with bad investments, writes the economic columnist David McWilliams. 
Growing rumours of a Greek default have spurred the markets, not sent them into freefall. This suggests that worse than default is agonising and dithering about the fate of the Eurozone, according to Irish economist David McWilliams. 
Increasingly massive bail-outs of first Greece, then the eurozone, are doing little to calm jittery world markets. The problem, argues Irish economist David McWilliams, is that nations have hitched their destiny to a fragile banking system at the expense of their citizens.