Debunking the Criticisms of Gary Stevenson

Oligarch owned media outlets, divisive youtubers, and prominent entrepreneur influencers have all rallied round to undermine an economist, who's "squeeze out" theory is sweeping the nation and threatening to disrupt the neoliberal status quo. Former Citibank interest rates trader and esteemed economist, Gary Stevenson, made his name as the global bank's most profitable trader in 2011.

Despite his achievements, Gary felt unfulfilled; he noticed that not only was he making absurd sums of money while austerity was gutting the wealth of his working class neighbours in Ilford, but he transcended into a deep depression in realising the part this played in the 2008 financial crisis. He left the financial sector to undertake a masters in economics and subsequently worked for think tanks across the capital.

More recently, Stevenson exploded onto the political scene after releasing his Sunday Times best seller book, 'The Trading Game', using this as a vehicle to grow his Youtube channel, Gary's Economics, where he theorises how wealth inequality is due to squeeze the middle and working classes out of home ownership and into poverty.

His slogan, “Tax Wealth Not Work”, is more than a simplistic soundbite, it is part of his strategy to pressure the UK Labour Government to overhaul the tax system so working people can afford life’s necessities. Stevenson argues that the ultra-wealthy, unable to spend their vast fortunes, use idle wealth to hoard national assets instead. This behaviour inflates house prices, fuels oligopolies, and pushes up the states debt.

Of course, it would be strange if a so called "left-wing" economic movement of this scale wasn't leapt upon by the forces that preserve financial deregulation and low taxes on the rich. Historically, the methods of the oligrarch owned press have included character assassinations, discrediting their accolades, and using misinformation to quash theories; Gary Stevenson has certainly been no exception to this rule...

In order to combat this misinformation, I have compiled some of the criticisms, levied at Stevenson, and addressed them accordingly:

"He wasn't as good a trader as he says!"

Critics often dismiss Stevenson’s credentials by nitpicking over whether he was truly “the best trader in the world.” This deliberately misrepresents his achievements. In 2011, he was Citibank’s most profitable trader globally, in terms of Profit and Loss, which is why he categorises himself as the “best trader in the world” for Citbank that year. His claims of being Citibank's most profitable trader, finishing up £35m, was not disputed in the Financial Times article that sought to discredit him.

The argument isn’t just about semantics, it’s part of a wider attempt to delegitimise him. In fact, the opening chapters of The Trading Game describe how his bosses at Citi warned him explicitly that if he ever tried to challenge the system or push for policies that might hurt the bank’s interests, they could destroy his reputation. And in an article ran by the Financial Times, these people have done exactly that.

"His rhetoric discourages ambition and success!!"

Figures like Piers Morgan and influencer-entrepreneurs like Daniel Priestley and Simon Squibb, accuse Stevenson of encouraging people to give up on ambition. But this caricature misses the point. Stevenson’s critique is not that people shouldn’t try, it’s that a functioning society cannot survive on entrepreneurs alone.

For 14 years, public sector pay has been crushed under austerity, leaving nurses, teachers, and social workers unable to keep pace with living costs. His argument is that those who choose noble, socially essential careers should not be punished simply because they didn’t scramble up the property ladder before it was pulled away.

Far from stifling ambition, his message calls for a society where both entrepreneurs and public servants can thrive. Wealth taxes; for example, Inheritance Tax, isn't to damage the concept meritocracy or redistribute wealth, it is to create a meritocracy in an inheritocracy, where the top 20% own 63% of the wealth and the bottom 20% own just 0.5%.

"His message is simplistic populism!!!"

Stevenson doesn’t deny the simplicity of his slogans, he embraces it. His role, as he makes clear, is not to draft policy papers but to grow a movement large enough that policymakers cannot ignore it.

Since Thatcher’s revolution in 1979, no left-wing think tank, media outlet, or politician has successfully shifted the economic consensus away from neoliberalism. Stevenson has filled that vacuum by communicating complex realities in a way millions can understand.

While critics accuse him of being a doomsayer, his track record tells a different story: he correctly predicted that interest rates would rise, that the UK economy wouldn't recover after 2008, that Labour would face a backlash soon after its 2024 election victory, and that right-wing populism would feed on anti-immigrant sentiment, all underpinned by the same trend: rising inequality.

"Wealth Taxes won't work: rich people will leave!!!!"

Perhaps the most recycled scare story is that billionaires will flee if wealth taxes are introduced. Yet HMRC’s own data shows no such “exodus” after the 2024 Autumn Budget, when taxes were increased by £4obn, the tabloids screamed of a mass departure of the wealthy, citing a dodgy study by Henley & Partners, who based this on people's LinkedIn status'.

Independent groups like Tax Justice UK have debunked Henley’s claims directly, pointing out that in reality, the number of high-net-worth individuals paying tax in the UK has remained stable. The myth of millionaire flight is just that, a myth used to defend the privileges of the ultra-wealthy.

The reality is: the mud isn't sticking to Gary Stevenson. He is a white working class man from Ilford, who rose through the ranks and became a winner. He won in trading, in academia, and now in media. He is a talented individual that no media commentator can dismiss as utilising the "politics of envy", especially in a time where these circles are using the idea that the white working class has been left behind to scapegoat immigration. His message is cutting through and it won't be long before Labour will have no choice but to listen.