Monday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam.

25% that’s the new tariff that the US has provisionally placed on its closest and biggest trading partners Canada & Mexico.  Their crime supposedly not adequately combating illegal migration and the opioid crisis.  That's despite Trump renegotiating a trade deal himself with both nations to create the USMCA when he was last in office.  To discuss these tariffs Joe spoke to Brad Setser who was part of the Obama administration and is now a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. 

The total value of pension savings in Ireland stands at €142bn and rising.  Most of that money will be invested in bonds and equities but most of those shares will be large American companies who aren't shy of a bob or two. Speaking to Joe this morning was Alan Merriman the Chief Executive of Elkstone and he believes that a certain proportion of our huge savings pot should be required to be placed in Irish companies to support startups here rather than in America. 

The largest private healthcare insurer, VHI, announced across the board price increases yesterday. That will affect hundreds of thousands of customers. Overall, around 50% of Irish adults have private health insurance. That is among the highest in Europe. The body charged with ensuring fair play and that you are not overpaying is the health insurance authority.  

Brian Lee is the Chief Executive of the Health Insurance Authority joined Joe this morning on the show.

Friday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam and Kate English Chief Economist with Deloitte.

As we all know from 2007, a booming economy can collapse very quickly if there’s a major external shock.  We’ve similarly low unemployment and high house prices today. So are we just as vulnerable to a serious Trump-shaped externality?  Are about to entirely miss the AI boat in Europe? 

To discuss further Joe spoke to Neil Hughes the Chief Executive with Azets Ireland.  

Despite a robust economy Irish business owners and managers have been screaming out that they are bearing the burden and that profit levels have been cut through higher minimum wages and a slew of new benefits for employees including sick and holiday pay. The hospitality sector has been among the most vociferous in its demands for a cut in VAT rates. They look as if they’ll get their wish but will the new government slash red tape and really encourage entrepreneurialism?  

Joe discusses this further with Peter Burke who has been retained as the Enterprise Minister and Joe began by asking him what employers can expect from the new government?

Joe Lynam takes a run through this morning's business news headlines.

Two large South American nations have been in the news lately.  One displeased Donald Trump and the other has managed to turn a huge budget deficit into a surplus.  Colombia faced immediate tariffs of up to 50% at the weekend because it refused to accept its immigrants deported in shackles from the US. Meanwhile Argentina’s far right president appears to have pulled an economic rabbit out of a hat.  To discuss these issues further Joe spoke to y Jon Farmer the Editor of Latin American  weekly report.

We’ve spoken about the energy required to run data centres in the past and how AI will drive that energy demand through the roof.  But the sudden arrival of DeepSeek from China seems to suggest that you might not need the type of scale that the US technology giants have been advocating.

 Indeed Deepseek has suddenly forced investors and engineers to think again about how AI can and should work. Karen Hao used to write for the WSJ and The Atlantic and was the first to profile OpenAI before the rest of us had heard of it. Joe spoke to Karen on the show and began by asking her about these externalities associated with AI.