Gary Stevenson (economist)

Last updated

Gary Stevenson
NationalityBritish
Education Ilford County High School Valentines High School
Alma mater
Years active2008–present
Known forEconomic activism
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2020–present
Subscribers510K [1]
Total views25.3 million [1]
Last updated: 2 November 2024
Website www.wealtheconomics.org

Gary Stevenson (born 1986 in Ilford) is a British economist, former financial trader, and YouTuber known for his economic analysis and activism against economic inequality. [2]

Contents

From a Mormon single-income working class background in Ilford, Stevenson won a scholarship to study for a BSc in economics and mathematics at the London School of Economics, before becoming a financial trader at Citibank in 2008 at the age of 21. Stevenson became a millionaire in the wake of the great recession by betting there would be a large increase in economic inequality, and that growing poverty would cause interest rates to stay low. [3] By trading on this prediction, he claims to have become Citibank's most profitable trader globally in 2011. [4] [5] In 2014, Stevenson retired from financial trading to study for an MPhil in Economics at the University of Oxford. [6] In 2020, he started the YouTube-channel GarysEconomics, where he campaigns against economic inequality and explains economic concepts to a wider audience. [7]

Stevenson is a contributor to policy debates on inequality in Britain and has contributed to outlets such as The Guardian , BBC, LBC, and Novara Media. In 2024, Stevenson published The Trading Game through Penguin Books, a memoir about his years working in the finance industry. [8] The book rose to the number one spot on the Sunday Times bestseller list and received generally positive reviews. [9] [10] [11]

Early life

Stevenson's father was a post office worker in Ilford, London, United Kingdom. [3] He grew up with a sister, Debris Stevenson, and a brother. [5] As a child, Stevenson worked as a paperboy, and attended Ilford County High School until 2003 where he was expelled at the age of 16 due to a "drug-related transgression". [3] He then completed his A-Levels at Valentines High School where he achieved four As. [12]

In 2005, he enrolled in the London School of Economics and studied maths and economics. [3] He later wrote in his memoir that his university experience led him to conclude that "a lot of rich people expect poor people to be stupid". He worked for DFS, earning £40 a day. [13]

Career

Interest rate trader

Stevenson began his career as an interest rate trader in 2008 at the age of 21, after winning a "card game" based on trading, [5] [14] initially being hired by Citibank as an intern and then as a full employee. [13] He took advantage of the 2007–2008 financial crisis, [3] receiving his first bonus in early 2009 of £13,000, [13] and earned just under £400,000 in his first year, followed by his first million pounds by 2010. [3] He also bet on the Greek government-debt crisis in 2011. [15] By the end of 2011, Stevenson claims he had become "Citibank's most profitable trader" (a claim which has been disputed by many former Citibank colleagues. [16] ) by trading based on the prediction that interest rates would not rise due to the impact of wealth inequality upon demand, [3] [5] he believed the wealthy tended to save their money rather than spend it, instead investing it in property. [17]

Campaigning

Stevenson retired from trading in 2014 when he was 27 and enrolled at Keble College, Oxford to study for a master's in economics, writing a thesis titled "The Impact of Inequality on Asset Prices When Households Care About Wealth". [3] [14] He published "Depressed and disillusioned" with the education he was receiving, [3] and annoyed that "change isn't going to come from there," [15] he involved himself in the work of Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman, Atif Mian and Amir Sufi, and Ludwig Straub. [3]

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, he predicted a rise in house prices and in the cost of shopping, [3] and that inequality would increase. [5] He joined the Patriotic Millionaires and Millionaires for Humanity to campaign for wealth tax, and set up the YouTube channel GarysEconomics with the mission of explaining economics to the wider public. [3] [18] [19] In 2021, he signed an open letter to Rishi Sunak alongside 29 other UK millionaires, calling on the then chancellor to introduce a wealth tax and stating that "instead of raising national insurance and taking £1,000 a year away from families on universal credit, the chancellor, who is a multimillionaire, should be taxing himself and people like me – people with wealth." [20] He has also proposed limiting the length of time for which people can keep their wealth. [2]

In 2022, Stevenson appeared in the Channel 4 documentary Cryptocurrency: Has the Bubble Burst? [21] In 2023, Stevenson featured in Steffan Roe Griffiths' short film, Gary Stevenson - Life Out of Balance, [22] and appeared on BBC Politics Live. [18] He wrote a memoir, The Trading Game, [19] named after the event held by Citibank which allowed him to obtain an internship there. [23] It was acquired by Penguin Books in a six-figure deal, [19] and released in March 2024. [13] Joris Luyendijk of The Guardian wrote that it was "a well written and often darkly funny book that makes a convincing case that high finance is as toxic, reckless and deeply cynical as ever." [13]

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel Lawson</span> British peer and politician (1932–2023)

Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, was a British politician and journalist. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament for Blaby from 1974 to 1992, and served in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet from 1981 to 1989. Prior to entering the Cabinet, he served as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury from May 1979 until his promotion to Secretary of State for Energy. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in June 1983 and served until his resignation in October 1989. In both Cabinet posts, Lawson was a key proponent of Thatcher's policies of privatisation of several key industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic inequality</span> Distribution of income or wealth between different groups

Economic inequality is an umbrella term for a) income inequality or distribution of income, b) wealth inequality or distribution of wealth, and c) consumption inequality. Each of these can be measured between two or more nations, within a single nation, or between and within sub-populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Bradford DeLong</span> American economist

James Bradford "Brad" DeLong is an American economic historian who has been a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley since 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trickle-down economics</span> Economic and political term

Trickle-down economics is the concept that government economic policies that disproportionately favor the upper tier of the economic spectrum eventually benefit the economy as a whole. The principle is founded on the idea that spending by this group "trickles down" to those less fortunate in the form of stronger economic growth. The term has been used broadly by critics of supply-side economics to refer to taxing and spending policies by governments that, intentionally or not, result in widening income inequality; it has also been used in critical references to neoliberalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High-net-worth individual</span> People with net worth at least $1 million USD

High-net-worth individual (HNWI) is a technical term used in the financial services industry for people who maintain liquid assets at or above a certain threshold. Typically, they are defined as holding financial assets valued over US$1 million. A secondary level, a very-high-net-worth individual (VHNWI), refers to someone with a net worth of at least US$5 million. The terminal level, an ultra-high-net-worthindividual (UHNWI), holds US$30 million in investible assets. Individuals with a net worth of over US$1 billion are considered to occupy a special bracket of the UHNWI. These thresholds are broadly used in studies of wealth inequality, government regulation, investment suitability requirements, marketing, financing standards, and general corporate strategy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wealth inequality in the United States</span>

The inequality of wealth has substantially increased in the United States in recent decades. Wealth commonly includes the values of any homes, automobiles, personal valuables, businesses, savings, and investments, as well as any associated debts.

Robin Crispin William Odey is a British hedge fund manager and founder of Odey Asset Management. According to Bloomberg in November 2017, he is "known for his bearish outlook" on the markets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Reeves</span> British politician (born 1979)

Rachel Jane Reeves is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds West and Pudsey, formerly Leeds West, since 2010. She previously held various shadow ministerial and shadow cabinet portfolios between 2010 and 2015 and from 2020 to 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corporation Trust Center</span> Building in Delaware, United States

The Corporation Trust Center is operated by CT Corporation, a subsidiary of Dutch information services firm Wolters Kluwer. The company provides "registered agent services" and, as such, is not responsible for the business or legal affairs of the customers it serves. In 2012, it was the registered agent address of at least 285,000 separate American and foreign businesses who operate or trade in the United States. The split level building is located at 1209 North Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware, United States.

A world taxation system or global tax is a hypothetical system for the collection of taxes by a central international revenue service. The idea has garnered currency as a means of eliminating tax avoidance and tax competition; it has also aroused the ire of nationalists as an infringement upon national sovereignty.

Denise Coates is a British billionaire businesswoman, the founder, majority shareholder and joint chief executive of online gambling company bet365.

The Equality Trust is a UK registered charity that campaigns against economic and social inequality. Founded as a campaigning organisation in 2009 by Bill Kerry, Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate Pickett after the publication of Wilkinson and Pickett's book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, it became a registered charity in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harris + Hoole</span> British coffeehouse company

Harris and Hoole is a British coffeehouse company headquartered in London and wholly owned by Caffè Nero. It was established in 2012 by Andrew, Nick and Laura Tolley, with investment from the British supermarket chain Tesco. The Harris + Hoole name comes from two coffee-loving characters in Samuel Pepys' diary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster</span> British aristocrat and businessman (born 1991)

Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster,, is a British aristocrat and businessman. He inherited his title and control of the Grosvenor Estate, then worth an estimated £9 billion, from his father in 2016. As such, Grosvenor is one of the wealthiest men in Britain. In 2023, Bloomberg estimated that he had a net worth of approximately £9.42 billion. He ranked 15th on the Sunday Times Rich List 2024 with an estimated fortune of £10.127 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriel Zucman</span> French economist

Gabriel Zucman is a French economist who is currently an associate professor of public policy and economics at the University of California, Berkeley‘s Goldman School of Public Policy, Chaired Professor at the Paris School of Economics, and Director of the EU Tax Observatory.

Auriens is a retirement complex in Chelsea, London, in Dovehouse Street, overlooking Dovehouse Green and the King's Road.

World Inequality Database (WID), previously The World Wealth and Income Database, also known as WID.world, is an extensive, open and accessible database "on the historical evolution of the world distribution of income and wealth, both within countries and between countries".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akshata Murty</span> Indian businesswoman (born 1980)

Akshata Narayana Murty is an Indian heiress, businesswoman, fashion designer, and venture capitalist. She is the wife of former prime minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak and the daughter of N. R. Narayana Murthy, a founder of the Indian multinational IT company Infosys, and Sudha Murty. She holds a 0.93 per cent stake in Infosys, along with shares in several other British businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlene Engelhorn</span> German-Austrian activist (born 1992)

Marlene Engelhorn is an Austrian and German activist and heiress known for advocating the reform of inheritance tax policies.

References

  1. 1 2 "About Garys Economics". YouTube.
  2. 1 2 Neate, Rupert; @RupertNeate (2 July 2022). "Gary Stevenson, City trader turned campaigner: 'I made money betting on a disaster'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Chakelian, Anoosh (17 November 2021). ""Capitalism's over": The man who made millions by betting the economy would never recover". New Statesman. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  4. ↑ "He made millions betting against economic recovery. Now he wants to fix things". www.ft.com. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Stevenson, Gary (7 May 2020). "I made millions out of the last debt crisis. Now the wealthy stand to win again". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  6. ↑ Neate, Rupert; @RupertNeate (2 July 2022). "Gary Stevenson, City trader turned campaigner: 'I made money betting on a disaster'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  7. ↑ "Garys Economics - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  8. ↑ Stevenson, Gary (5 March 2024). The Trading Game.
  9. ↑ Gimein, Mark (10 March 2024). "A Coming-of-Age Tale From the World of London High Finance". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  10. ↑ Dunn, Will (14 June 2024). "The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson review — confessions of a Citibank boy". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  11. ↑ "High finance, low spirits — insider tales from Wall Street and the City". www.ft.com. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  12. ↑ Paul Clarke (17 December 2021). "Meet the junior trader turned economist who's convinced a recession is coming". eFinancialCareers. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Luyendijk, Joris (22 February 2024). "The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson review – cashing out". The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  14. 1 2 "Commentary: I got rich by betting that inequality would destroy the U.S. and U.K. I'm sorry". Fortune. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  15. 1 2 Neate, Rupert (3 April 2021). "'Raise my taxes – now!': the millionaires who want to give it all away". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  16. ↑ Smith, Robert (12 September 2024). "Gary Stevenson claims to have been the best trader in the world. His old colleagues disagree". Financial Times.
  17. ↑ Jones, Owen (13 January 2022). "As things fall apart, the super-rich spend $2m on whisky. We need a wealth tax". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  18. 1 2 Ellingham, Miles (1 March 2024). "He made millions betting against economic recovery. Now he wants to fix things". Financial Times . Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  19. 1 2 3 "Allen Lane lands 'gripping' memoir by ex-trader Stevenson in 12-way auction for six figures". The Bookseller. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  20. ↑ Neate, Rupert (24 October 2021). "Millionaires petition Rishi Sunak to introduce wealth tax". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  21. ↑ Hogan, Michael (9 August 2022). "Cryptocurrency: Has the Bubble Burst? review: a disappointing and dumbed-down crash course". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  22. ↑ Roe Griffiths, Steffan (24 May 2023). Gary Stevenson - Life Out of Balance, A Cinematic Documentary. MNA Film. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  23. ↑ Stevenson, Gary (2 February 2024). "I was the City's youngest and highest earning trader – but it nearly killed me". The Daily Telegraph . ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 12 February 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.