Gary Stevenson (economist)

Stevenson's father was a Post Office worker in Ilford.[3] He grew up with a sister, Debris Stevenson, and a brother.[4] As a child, Stevenson worked as a paperboy, and went to Ilford County High School, from which he was later expelled at the age of 16 due to a “drug-related” transgression.[3]

In 2005, he enrolled in the London School of Economics and studied maths and economics.[3]

Stevenson became an interest rate trader in 2008 at the age of 21, after winning a "card game" based on trading.[4][5] He took advantage of the 2007–2008 financial crisis and earned under £400,000 in his first year, followed by his first million by 2010.[3] He also bet on the Greek government-debt crisis in 2011.[6] By the end of 2011, Stevenson had become "Citibank's most profitable trader" by trading based on the prediction that interest rates would not rise due to the impact of wealth inequality upon demand,[3][4] as he believed the wealthy tended to save their money rather than spend it, instead investing it in property.[7]

Stevenson retired from trading in 2014 when he was 27 and enrolled at the University of Oxford to study economics.[3][5] “Depressed and disillusioned” with the education he was receiving,[3] and annoyed that “change isn’t going to come from there,”[6] 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.[4] He joined the Patriotic Millionaires to campaign for wealth tax, and set up the YouTube channel GarysEconomics with the mission of explaining economics to the wider public.[3][8] In 2021, he signed an open letter to Rishi Sunak alongside 29 other UK millionaires, calling on the prime minister 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."[9] 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?.[10] He wrote a memoir, The Trading Game, which was acquired by Penguin Books in a six-figure deal.[8]

In 2023, Stevenson featured in Steffan Roe Griffiths' short film, Gary Stevenson - Life Out of Balance.[11]