Latest news with #GaryStevenson
Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Times
Want to help the poor? Don't chase out the rich
Have you come across Gary Stevenson yet? He's a former financial trader, author and wealth tax advocate whose angry eloquence is perfect for our TikTok age. His videos, viewed almost 150 million times, warn of a rigged economic system where the rich exploit and hoard, leaving the poor assetless and adrift. It's time to tax the assets and not just income of the wealthy, he says, to restore fairness to society. Many Labour MPs agree. His message is urgent, compelling, energising — and completely wrong. First, he's being unfair to Rachel Reeves. She's doing her level best to go after the rich: taxing private schools, hitting non-doms and pursuing radical inheritance tax reform. We can see the results already, albeit not quite the ones she
Times
03-05-2025
- Business
- Times
Six rounds with Gary Stevenson, the new economic hero of the left
The hottest new YouTube sensation in British politics looks like he's about to punch me in the face. Gary Stevenson, star City trader turned left-wing firebrand, has been describing his 'surreal' and meteoric propulsion to fame since I first met him a little over a year ago when he released his memoir. But when I ask him about newspaper reports that he has oversold his trading CV, his usual bonhomie fades, fast. 'I would have expected better from you,' he says, icily. 'I'm frankly surprised a journalist like you who's read my book can't see what's happened here.' That book, The Trading Game, is a riproaring account of Stevenson's time as a poor kid from the East End becoming Citibank's most profitable global trader
Arab News
04-04-2025
- Business
- Arab News
What We Are Reading Today: The Trading Game
Author: Gary Stevenson Gary Stevenson's thinly veiled vehicle for launching a political career is an undeniable rags-to-riches story which has captured the attention of 'Broken Britain' at a time when living costs are spiraling, public services are in disarray and politicians seem unable to provide solutions. A math prodigy from a working-class background, Stevenson paints a vivid picture of a career that took him from playing football on the streets of Ilford to becoming Citibank's 'most profitable trader' in the years after the 2008 financial crisis. (A claim, incidentally, credibly rebuked by his former colleagues in a Financial Times report.) The pugnacious self-starter won a scholarship to the London School of Economics and was hired by Citibank after winning the eponymous trading game designed to jumpstart the careers of graduates based on their potential merit as traders. He describes the characters he encounters along the way with a mix of bemusement and admiration, and overall his insider's look at the world of banking has a vicarious pull. The central thrust unfolds as Stevenson comes to the realization he is making his millions betting against the chances of the world economy recovering. As his bonuses grow larger, his mental health declines and he decides to commit himself to the cause of fighting inequality— something that has garnered him a large online following and which is starting to look like an entry into politics. While the book suffers from some of the conceit that puts any autobiographical work at risk, and some jarring editing (the first-person narration, for some reason, switches to using more slang about halfway through), it is still a strong piece of storytelling and the emotional rawness of Stevenson's style makes a real impression. While his political takeaways might raise the eyebrows of more conservative readers, his voice still cuts through the noise of British politics and speaks directly to ordinary people from the unique viewpoint of someone who has escaped poverty, lived the life of the ultra-rich, and decided to turn around in an apparent effort to help those less fortunate.
The Guardian
30-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labour group tells MPs they must be ‘on YouTube and TikTok'
Confidence in the government will not improve unless they get their faces and ideas on online media platforms including YouTube, a group of Labour MPs has warned colleagues. The Labour Growth Group of about 110 MPs is working with leading podcasters and popular figures to help Labour backbenchers become influencers in their own right, amid concerns toxic narratives about the party's agenda, its politicians and its policies are going unchallenged. The LGG is understood to be seeking to develop the new intake of MPs to ensure the future parliamentary Labour party contains politicians confident enough to express a variety of views to engage an array of audiences, and to prepare them for ministerial roles. Those involved are working with a popular British YouTuber with more than a million followers who has already provided a trial media clinic. The MPs were told they could only challenge internet creators – who are largely rightwing and male – by neglecting the Whitehall obsession with traditional 'establishment media'. A Labour figure with knowledge of the plans said: 'We've got to face up to the fact that today's media landscape is not the same as 1997's. We have to be where people are – and especially for young men and those considering populist alternatives, that's on new media. 'Low trust in politics, low turnout, lack of sense of delivery – those aren't things we are going to change with a nice Times headline. We have to be in people's faces constantly on YouTube and on TikTok. That is a skill we need to be nurturing within Labour and the PLP. 'If we continue to leave a vacuum in these spaces, that's where we get toxic narratives emerging and going unchallenged, it's where people's real concerns get jumped on and twisted. This is not something we can afford to ignore.' It comes after the caucus of about 110 MPs approached the economist and YouTuber Gary Stevenson, who runs the multi-platform channel Gary's Economics, in hope of engaging in a debate with the former financial trader about the government's plans to raise living standards and end economic decline. The approach prompted Stevenson, whose channels push content out to millions of subscribers, to publish a 15-minute video titled Labour want to come on Gary's Economics, should I let them?, which within a week was collectively viewed by about a million people. Labour figures have long acknowledged the appeal young MPs such as Zarah Sultana have with a specific portion of the electorate, given some of Sultana's posts are viewed hundreds of thousands of times on TikTok and Instagram, but insist it is time for the centre-left to fill a vacuum on new media. The YouTube star who advised Labour MPs said they could better their chances at the next election if they focused on creating viral moments on typically anti-establishment new media platforms that people could refer back to in years to come. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion A further Labour insider said the group believed they would have more success with external help than relying on the machinery of government, which relies on advisers and senior politicians needing to give content signoff, creating delays. The LGG is expected to have a project in place in time for the autumn budget, when the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is rumoured to be implementing tax rises. 'We need Blue Labour people, left people, people who want to discuss plans to build, build, build so we have a project that is creative, filled with people who have a different risk appetite and a lot less rigidity in their message,' the party insider said. Chris Curtis, the Labour MP for Milton Keynes and a co-chair of the LGG, said: 'The centre-left of politics has up to now failed to effectively establish a foothold in the online media ecosystem and we know we've got to change that. Right now we're simply ceding the ground while algorithms mainline misogynistic and far-right content. We've got to get on the pitch to have a chance at taking that on.'
Bloomberg
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Bloomberg
How Manchester United's Debt Problem Could get Much Bigger
After a lot of NFL news, this week we look at the football you play with your feet. It's arguably the most important season ever for the MLS, so we talk to deputy commissioner Gary Stevenson about its plans. And we look at the mess at Manchester United and the sale process of Glasgow Rangers. Also, in the ever stranger world of football, we had a reporter in Benghazi to watch a match put on by a Libyan warlord. Real Madrid giants Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Michael Owen along with ex Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o and Juventus's David Trezeguet were there. (In non football news — beards are in.)
