Inside Business is a regular podcast from The Irish Times. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, on Android, on Stitcher - or wherever you find podcasts.

How has the Trump economy so totally confounded the negative expectations of a year ago? What did we learn about the tracker mortgage scandal from AIB chief executive Bernard Byrne's appearance at the Oireachtas finance committee? And what is stopping us from making real competitors to Dublin out of places such as Cork and Limerick, before the entire country becomes a commuter belt and the M50 finally grinds to a permanent halt?

In part one of today’s Inside Business podcast, Business Editor Ciarán Hancock speaks to Cliff Taylor and Eoin Burke-Kennedy and seeks answers to those questions.

In part two, Markets Correspondent Joe Brennan reports from the World Economic Forum annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, where some world leaders are speaking out in defence of globalisation ahead of the arrival of protectionist US president Donald Trump.