Gary Stevenson
Gary Walter Stevenson (born 1986) is a British YouTuber, author, and former Citibank trader who has become one of the United Kingdom's most prominent public advocates for wealth taxation and economic inequality awareness.[^c1] After growing up in a low-income household in Ilford, London, Stevenson studied economics and mathematics at the London School of Economics and became a financial trader at Citibank at age 21. He made millions betting that rising inequality would keep interest rates low, and claims to have been the bank's most profitable trader globally in 2011 — a claim disputed by former colleagues.[^c1][^c2]
After leaving his trading career at Citibank in 2014 at age 27, Stevenson completed an MPhil in economics at the University of Oxford and began campaigning against wealth inequality.[^c1] His central argument holds that wealth concentration is self-perpetuating: the wealthy save and invest rather than spend, suppressing consumer demand and driving up asset prices, which progressively transfers assets from the middle class to the rich. He has formalised this analysis into a "Three-Option Dilemma" framework, arguing that governments facing wealth concentration have only three sustainable policy paths — tax the super-rich, raise taxes on workers, or cut the welfare state — and that the first is the only viable option. He advocates for a wealth tax targeting assets above £10 million.[^c3] He is a founding member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, a network of wealthy individuals campaigning for higher taxes on the rich, and was one of the first six signatories to the UK chapter.[^c15][^c16][^c29] He has drawn intellectual inspiration from economists Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman, and Emmanuel Saez.
Stevenson launched the YouTube channel Garys Economics in May 2020, which grew to over 1.6 million subscribers and 218 million total views, with a companion podcast reaching 99 episodes by June 2026.[^c10][^c13][^c19] His 2024 memoir, The Trading Game, became a Sunday Times number one bestseller and has been published in more than 20 languages.[^c4] Bloomberg named it "The Best Wall Street Book of 2024." In 2025, he received the Human Act Award and an honorary Doctor of Social Sciences from SOAS University of London, where he told the graduating class: "You get to play a part in the most amazing, fantastic, terrible and interesting game that I've ever seen" and urged them to write the "new story" that a disillusioned public was demanding from economics.[^c4][^c5][^c21] In November 2025, a coordinated campaign involving Stevenson delivered over 575,000 petition signatures to the Treasury calling for a wealth tax.[^c9]
His first television documentary, How to Get Filthy Rich, premiered at Sheffield DocFest in June 2026 to a standing ovation and aired on Channel 4 on July 8, 2026,[^c8][^c17][^c18] but drew near-universal negative reviews across the political spectrum. The Guardian awarded it two stars and described it as "a faintly embarrassing waste of time," noting that Stevenson was "outdone and undone by almost all of his interviewees."[^c25] Richard Murphy, a left-wing tax commentator, called the programme "deeply embarrassing" and argued it may have set back the case for wealth taxation.[^c26] Regional and cultural critics described it as operating at a "sixth-form level of debate" and a "spectacular self-own."[^c27][^c28] Independent economist Julian Jessop published a data-driven critique arguing that Stevenson's inequality claims were unsupported by official statistics and that his proposed wealth tax would raise far less than claimed.
A limited series adaptation of The Trading Game is in development with Motive Pictures and screenwriter Gregory Burke.[^c11] Following a six-month hiatus during which he filmed the documentary and toured Australia, Stevenson returned to publishing in April 2026 in response to the economic shock of the US-Israel invasion of Iran, arguing that the crisis demonstrated his core thesis about asset ownership. In June 2026, amid a political crisis facing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, unconfirmed speculation emerged that Stevenson had been approached by Andy Burnham's team to serve as an economic adviser for the Labour party. In May 2026, he appeared alongside Burnham at the Compass think tank's Change:NOW! conference during the tight Makerfield by-election, reflecting his growing proximity to Labour policy circles. In July 2026, as Starmer resigned and Burnham moved towards the Labour leadership, Stevenson guest-edited a special edition of the Big Issue to make the case for a wealth tax, telling the magazine: "I really want Burnham to be good. Because if he is not, then Nigel Farage will win the next election."[^c23][^c24] During his Australian tour, he appeared on ABC News Daily and triple j's Hack program, warning that rising inequality threatened Australia's cultural ideal of a "fair go" and calling for wealth taxes to address the housing crisis.[^c7]
Stevenson has argued that wealth inequality threatens not only economic stability but also democratic institutions. Academic research has provided empirical support for this claim: a 2024 PNAS study of 22 countries found that income inequality was one of the strongest predictors of democratic erosion, while a 2025 CUNY Stone Center working paper found that extreme top-end wealth concentration was associated with declines in democratic performance at the US state level.
His rise has attracted substantial criticism from across the political spectrum: former colleagues have disputed his trading record, free-market economists have argued that wealth taxes harm economic growth, MMT economists have identified technical errors in his explanation of government bond markets, centrist commentators have argued that he constructs an oversimplified villain narrative, and left-wing analysts have contended that his reformist approach is insufficient to address structural inequality. Stevenson has responded that his critics act in bad faith and that the establishment does not want the public to understand the true nature of economic inequality.[^c2][^c6] He has debated opponents including IEA Director General Mark Littlewood and former minister Rory Stewart, the latter questioning his economic credentials, to which Stevenson responded by posting his Oxford master's certificate online.[^c22]
His cultural influence has extended to derivative content: in 2025, comedian Barry Ferns launched the YouTube channel "Barry's Economics" after Stevenson's call for more content about inequality, explicitly positioning it as a complement to Stevenson's work and directing viewers to support the wealth tax campaign.[^c14] Patriotic Millionaires UK executive director Rebecca Gowland argued in a 2026 Big Issue piece that "taxing wealth is now a central political discussion and... it is an inevitable policy choice that our future leaders will have to make."[^c30]
July 2026 developments
The political moment Stevenson had anticipated arrived in July 2026, but the outcomes were mixed. On 14 July, incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham declined to rule out a wealth tax but signalled he did not want to "create new divisions" — and The Guardian reported the following day that he would not increase wealth taxes immediately, with allies indicating he did not intend to raise money by taxing wealth in the near term.[^c32] On 17 July, Burnham was confirmed as Labour leader, giving a speech criticising "four decades of neoliberalism" that had concentrated wealth, but his early agenda focused on devolution and foreign policy rather than wealth tax reform.
On 23 July, a "Proud to Pay" open letter organised by Patriotic Millionaires UK, signed by 120 millionaires including Gary Lineker, Val McDermid, Brian Eno, and Stevenson, urged Burnham to impose a 2% wealth tax on assets above £10 million, stating: "We want you to tax us. We can afford it."[^c31] Polling showed 80% of UK millionaires supported the measure. However, on 26 July, after a "bruising round of media including attacks from Piers Morgan and the Guardian," Stevenson announced he was pausing his YouTube channel with immediate effect, citing burnout and health concerns in a 48-minute video titled "It's time to say goodbye." He stated he had "already gone further than I should have done from a health perspective" and that continuing would "destroy me," and planned a break in Japan.[^c33][^c34] His departure removed the wealth tax campaign's most visible communicator at the moment of its highest political relevance.