Author David J. Lynch
When The Luck Of The Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again, an account of modern Ireland’s journey from rags to riches and back again, can be purchased on Amazon.com.
David J. Lynch is The Washington Post’s global economics correspondent. Formerly a senior writer with Bloomberg News focusing on the intersection of politics and economics, he also followed the global economy for USA TODAY, where he was the founding bureau chief in both London and Beijing. He covered the wars in Kosovo and Iraq, the latter as an embedded reporter with the U.S. Marines, and was the paper’s first recipient of a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University. He has reported from more than 60 countries.
During more than three decades as a journalist, Lynch also worked as a financial writer specializing in the aerospace and defense industries for The Orange County Register in southern California. In the 1980s, he was the editor of Defense Week, a Washington, D.C., trade publication covering national security.
An experienced public speaker, Lynch has made television appearances on Fox, C-SPAN and PBS in the United States and BBC and Sky News in London. His speaking engagements have included teaching at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication and leading seminars for Chinese business journalists in Xi’an.
Lynch has a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University and a B.A. in government from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct. He lives in northern Virginia with his wife Kathleen and their three sons.
David J. Lynch launching When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again at the Woodrow Wilson Center November 2010
Advance Praise for When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again
“David Lynch’s book is an amazing story of rampaging greed, dirty doings and even adulterous sex! Old Mother Ireland doffs her peasant’s garb and emerges as a provocative siren, infecting the Irish with diseased materialism. Along with a concise history of Ireland, Lynch makes even economics funny and fascinating.”
–Malachy McCourt, Irish-American actor, writer and politician
“A brilliant set of insights into the true and completely general nature of ‘crony capitalism’. Close connections between politicians, bankers, and property developers brought Ireland great apparent prosperity — while really creating the conditions for a huge and horrible crash. Lynch is optimistic that Ireland can rise again and find a more robust model for growth. Let’s hope he is right.”
–Simon Johnson, Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management and author of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown
“David Lynch’s book will enrage, enlighten, and sadden you. His superbly written account of what really happened in Ireland during the boom of the Celtic Tiger and the ensuing bust is, to be sure, a story about Ireland. But it is also a cautionary tale for all of us. The next time somebody tells you that the market can only go up, run away and re-read this book!”
— Terry Golway, columnist, The Irish Echo and author of So Others Might Live
“Lynch marvelously weaves together politics, history, and religion to explain the incredible economic and social transformation that has swept Ireland over the past three decades and the deep financial crisis that Ireland is grappling with today.”
–Kenneth S. Rogoff, Professor of Economics, Harvard University and coauthor of This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
“David Lynch has produced a terrific read — a hair-raising gallop through the hills and valleys of modern day finance. After reading this book, you’ll never think about Ireland — or global financial markets — in quite the same way.”
–David M. Smick, author of The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy