What is happening now in Economics, in the Media, in Universities, in the Bank of England, in the Government

It is a disaster. It is it is a comedy.  It is a disgrace. it is unbelievable  

the childishly weak level of  understanding in these institutions  

but it is destroying the economy of this country  and the lives of people in this country so people  

need to understand it so today we're going  to explain what is going wrong with economics

so in my 14 years of working full-time in  the economy i've never once seen a time  

where the public discussion, the public discourse  coming from the media, from the bank of England,  

from the government, about the economy has been  as ridiculously stupid as it is right now okay  

so we've got a situation where in the last two  years the government printed £450 billion pounds  

an unbelievably huge amount of money  and effectively transferred that money  

to the richest if you don't understand  why watch the first video on this channel  

they printed 450 billion gave it to the  richest and that caused very predictable  

consequences which is a big jump in inflation,   a crisis of inequality and cost of living crisis  

for ordinary people okay very very predictable  very understandable okay £450 billion is an 

enormous amount of money from the government  to the richest who's talking about it no one  

no one in media, no one in government, no one in   the bank of england no one in universities right so  

in this video what i'm going to talk about  is we're going to explain the system of  

economics as its taught at universities and as  it's discussed so that people can understand  

why is that all of our institutions that  should be explaining what's happening  

have completely failed to understand what's  happening now okay all right so imagine you are a  

smart talented young economic student okay a  lot of people study economics nowadays because  

it's a degree that gets a pretty good job right  you can get a decent job if you study economics  

so you go to a good university you get a top class  degree in economics what you're going to do all  

right so you're 21 years old you've just done your  undergrad good school in economics if you want to  

become a professor you're gonna have to stay  in academia for another seven eight ten years  

pay money every year to study you're going to get  yourself in 100-200 grand of debt and then after  

that you'll have to work your way up in academia  maybe six seven years down the line you'll be  

making 60-70 grand a year okay or you can go into  the city in one of these skyscrapers over here  

and in my case by 26 i was a multi-millionaire  so imagine you are a smart kid from a poor or  

ordinary background okay you live in the world we  live in where houses in london cost half a million  

seven hundred grand you're from a poor family  which one of these two options are you gonna take  

you know think about it okay so we live in a world  where if you're from a poor background you would  

be insane to try and get into academic economics  okay and what that means is we end up in a  

situation where if you go into economics that sort  of phd level or advanced level there is basically  

nobody there from a poor background or if they  are there it's because they basically didn't  

get the grades that were good enough to get a  job in the city so we've created a situation now  

where there's almost nobody from an  ordinary background studying economics  

and if you're really really good at economics  there's an enormous financial incentive  

for you to go work in the city right so i did that  i got a degree and i went to work in the city the  

statistics completely support this economics is  at least representative of social class of all the  

subjects in the USA which is where all the biggest  universities are you're most likely to be from a  

family where the parents have degrees or have phds  you're least likely to come from families where  

parents don't so it's very very non-representative  of social class but also what it does is basically  

creates two separate worlds of economics okay  so the best paid 10 000 economists in the world  

they are basically all traders every single one  of them right they all do what i was doing they  

work for a fund they work for a big bank they work  at one of these skyscrapers they sit in office and  

they make trades okay you will never hear them on  the news you will never ever hear them on the news  

okay and these guys get paid you know a million  pounds a year two million pounds a year to manage  

money but you will never hear them okay, so when  i was working at Citibank i was a very successful  

trader i was getting paid a lot of money my  job was to bet on European interest rates okay  

say you're a journalist and you call up Citibank  and you say look we want to know what's going to  

happen to the european economy what are your  predictions do you think they put it on the  

phone to me they don't put on the phone to me  right they put you on the phone to somebody else  

who gets paid 50 grand a year you know 20 times  less than what i get paid and and that person  

will give you their opinion but you see what  i'm saying here we've created this system where  

there's a huge financial incentive for all the  best economists to work as traders and they  

are legally not allowed in their contracts to talk  to the press that's the world that we live in right  

so we've created the world where we're selecting  all of the people who think we are the best  

we're sending them to the skyscrapers and we're  saying you can't talk to the press you can't talk  

to the government you can't talk to the public and  yet we're we're saying if you if you're willing  

to work for 30-40 grand a year which no good  economist my poor background is ever going to do  

then you can work in the media right and i think  it's um it's really important to understand what  

we've done here right we've we've completely  separated out the guys we think we are the best  

and we've taken them completely out of the debate  and i think what is quite interesting is you know  

i was working in these skyscrapers i was making  a million pounds a year you know what i mean  

and i could still go and work any of these  skyscrapers and make a million pounds a year  

right but now i'm out here you know telling people  what's happening on YouTube for free and you know  

is Rishi Sunak calling me up no he's not you know  i went back to Oxford to do a masters right and  

i was one of the most successful best paid  traders in the world for trading interest rates  

and i went into a lecture for with a professor  whose job is to teach about interest rates  

and i said to him why do you think you guys have  predicted interest rates incorrectly for 10 years in 

a row and he said to me well "no we always knew  that rates would stay 0%" which is categorically  

completely verifiably wrong, right but he's able  to say that because in academia nobody ever goes  

back and checks if your predictions are right  you see what i'm saying and then for me i was  

able to go into the city and you know come from a  poor background no connections don't know anyone  

and within a few years i was famous in the bank  because my predictions were consistently right  

and i think it's interesting to contrast the world  of finance where people you work in a bank right  

you get a thousand emails a day you want to  talk to a world economic expert anything you  

can call them up and they'll talk to you know  what i mean and you are working 100 hour weeks  

if you need anything it comes to you straight away  compared to this guy who's working at university  

has been wrong 10 years in a row and didn't even  notice and these guys who do that they then go on  

to work at the bank of england so you know right  now there's a guy michael saunders on the npc okay  

he was employed at citibank as an economist right  to analyze uk interest rates while we were trading  

uk interest rates we never read a single thing  that that guy wrote you know this guy was a joke  

to us right we're getting paid a million pound  a year this guy's getting paid you know 70 grand  

a year to produce things that we never read you  know who do you think the bank really trusts you  

know they're giving us a million pounds a year to  manage the money they're giving this guy 70 grand  

here to write papers yeah i think it's important  you read to realize these guys in the media these  

guys in academia these guys at the bank of england  they're not paid to be right nobody's paying them  

to be right this guy at Oxford university can be  wrong for 10 years in a row and never even notice  

never even notice like that's unforgivable that's  that's horrifically bad right and these are the  

guys who we put in charge of our economy you see  what i'm saying and yeah if you like me have a  

consistent track record for being right year after  year after year after year you can go and work  

get a million pound deal working for goldman  sachs or for jp morgan you know what i mean  

but you can't give the advice to the  government for free because they don't care  

because they if listen anyone out there who's  watching right if you work for the government  

if you care why you're not calling me? you know  what i mean, these guys think i'm worth a  

million pounds a year i'm willing to work for free you  see what i'm saying you know why is Rishi Sunak not  

calling me? you know why is the labour party not  calling me? or you know why is the conservative  

party not calling me? you know why the university's  not calling me? listen i've been right year after  

year and look look at this crisis okay if you  have time now people watching go back and look  

at the first video on this channel in that video  i say this crisis is going to cause a massive  

transfer of cash from the government to the rich  that will lead to a massive increase in inequality  

a mass increase in house prices, a mass increase in  stock prices, a massive increase in inflation and  

a cost of living crisis that's there two years  ago two years ago and it that was not difficult  

to predict if you understand what's happening  it's not difficult to predict okay and yet now  

it's actually happened two years ago and they're  still not talking about it what is what is going  

on but if you think about it it makes total sense  right because if at 21 you come in and say listen  

all of the best guys we're going to pay you a  million quid a year to never ever speak publicly  

and the rest of you who are going to get yourself  200 grand in debt and maybe get half decent job  

in 15 years time you are the guys who are going  around the country that's what we're doing that's  

what we're doing right and i was working in the  bank and i used to bet year after year we're  

going to have a disaster and these guys just say  here go have a million quid, well done, do it again  

this is the world that we live in okay where  we select at 21 all of the best economists and  

we say you guys are going to bet on it and  we select all of the posh economists who  

are not that good and we say you are the  guys who are going to manage it you see  

it's crazy what's happening and then and  then now we're in a situation where look  

it is verifiable fact that 450 billion pounds  was transferred from the government to the rich  

during Covid okay verifiable fact okay if  i was to come to you three years ago before  

Covid and say imagine the government printed  450 billion pounds and gave it to the rich  

what do you think would happen you don't need to  be an economist you'll say okay well if the rich  

get a ton of money they're going to push the  prices up which will be fine for them because  

they've got a ton of money that will hurt the rest  of us right and the rich will start to consume a  

larger share of the natural resources and natural  resources become more expensive for the rest of us  

that's not complicated okay that happened it's  obvious it's obvious and that's 450 billion pounds  

and now Rishi Sunak is on tv saying oh don't  worry we stand by ready to help with £5 billion  

you give £450 billion to the rich and then  you say we're going to help with five billion  

pounds it's not it's not going to it's not going  to help right and then Labour say we're going to  

do a windfall tax on oil and gas companies  and we're going to raise two billion pounds  

these guys are so far out of touch you  know they're playing a different game  

you know if you transfer 450 billion pounds to  the rich and then you take five billion pounds  

back you're going to destroy the economy  right but but who's talking about it listen  

if you if you work in government okay imagine  you're going to print 450 billion pounds okay  

of course somebody in government should say  okay well before we give 450 billion pounds out  

we should do a report and analysis of  who's going to get the money we should do  

an analysis of where the money is going to end  up who did it who did it who did that analysis  

nobody nobody and if anybody is out there in  government or civil service find me that analysis  

please please find me one person in government  he said before we give out 450 billion pounds  

we should do an analysis of where the money  ended up okay and that's government okay  

name me one person in the media who did that  name me one single person in the media who did that  

i did it march 2020 what why is it why am i the  only guy doing it if you if you're giving out 450  

billion pounds you need to do an analysis where  the money is ending up nobody in government did  

it nobody in media did it who are these people you  know it's insane not a single person but then you  

know and i was speaking the other day to somebody  from a media institution or who i won't name  

and i said why did nobody at your place do it you  know and this guy works for a big newspaper in  

london and i said okay answer me one question you  work for a big global newspaper in london is there  

anyone in your office that sounds like me anyone  no listen if you run a global organization based  

in london and you don't have a single person  on your staff who sounds like me you [ __ ] up  

because how can you possibly have the best  people but look we've created a system where  

you can get paid a million pound a year over there  or you could get you want to work in media you  

have to work for seven-eight years on 30 grand a  year you have to do unpaid internships only rich  

people can afford these jobs so we end up with  media full of rich idiots government full of rich  

idiots universities full of rich idiots and anyone  who's half smart is making a million quid over  

there to shut the [ __ ] up and you're surprised  when the economy is a disaster this is what we've  

done we've created a system where we selectively  pick all of the best people who should be helping  

to fix this economy to protect the people of this  country to build a good future for this country  

and for the world and all they're allowed to do  is sit over there and bet on disaster making money  

for themselves you know i'm out here listen i'm  willing to support the government if they actually  

want to help this economy i'm here they can call  me i'm willing to work they're not calling me and  

the worst thing is they didn't even know what  they don't even realize how bad they're [ __ ]  

up who is talking about that 450 billion pounds 10  000 pounds per person look if the government were  

to bring in a policy now where they taxed every  person in the country ten thousand pounds and  

gave it all to the rich, people would be rioting on  the streets they've done it that is what they did  

and not a single person in the media is  talking about it so if anybody's watching  

who works in the media please ask yourself  why are you not talking about that money

you can't give 450 billion pounds to the  rich and expect no consequences you cannot  

do that and expect no consequences but we live  in a world where anybody who is entitled to a  

voice in economics which is academics people  in the media people at the bank of england  

people in government has been specifically  selected for not being very good  

and anyone who is good can make a  million pounds to never say anything  

and if that is the system you build of economics  do you expect to get good outcomes for society  

well you don't you will get the outcomes you get  which is me sitting here making a ton of cash  

and the economy going to absolute [ __ ] for  the whole world you know what i mean so look

economics is broken it's badly broken  

people in the media need to wake up and look at  what's happening um ordinary people out there  

you know if you know anyone in media and  government ask them this one simple question  

has anyone in your organization done a serious  analysis of who got that 450 billion pounds  

450 billion pounds and the amounts the  government is talking about to help 5 billion  

six billion after giving up 450 billion you know  and if you know anyone who works for any of these  

newspapers you know is the Daily Mail mentioned  it? no. has the Guard ian mentioned it? no. has The  

Sun mentioned it? has The Mirror mentioned it you know? no. has The Times mentioned it you know  

the Financial Times probably have and these  guys are reading it you know what i mean but

it's a joke it's a comedy so i  think people need to understand that

we've destroyed economics and you know i was at  oxford university for two years the world would  

be a better place if they just burned that  department down because these guys have no  

idea what's happening no idea what's happening  they don't think about inequality ever they've  

been wrong for 10 years they didn't notice it and  the problem is you know they don't get hurt they  

don't get hurt they don't get punished they don't  get hit by its ordinary people that lose out  

these guys literally have dinner in their harry potter  hallways every day you know what i mean they get  

paid a nice salary and they're wrong year after year  after year after year and they don't even notice  

and you know i remember when i was there having  my one midyear review when i told them this and they  

said what do you mean? you know things are getting  better sitting there in a wood paneled room in a  

castle with these guys wearing their capes saying  things are getting better and you couldn't help  

but hear those two missing words you know things  are getting better for us you know because for  

those guys it's totally fine for all of these  guys working for the guardian and working in the  

bank of england you know andrew bailey gets paid  half a million quid a year to be wrong every year  

every single one of these posh idiots is totally  fine and it's ordinary people who are getting hurt  

so it's a joke i mean it's a disgrace really  and we need to fix it um but look i'm out  

here trying to fix it so if anyone in the  government is listening wake up because  

things are gonna get worse and worse and worse  seriously and look i'm not just saying that i'm  

betting on it and i'm the guy that's been right  for 10 years in a row and um these are the guys  

who've been wrong so people listening should  think about who they trust um but things can uh  

things can be fixed but only if we start  addressing the fact that we gave 450 billion  

pounds to a bunch of [ __ ] billionaires we don't  fix that - it doesn't get better so hopefully we will

happy?

there you go...