Don’t ask if Gary Stevenson’s story is true, ask why it’s popular
Gary Stevenson is young, angry and everywhere – but the veracity of his anti-capitalist rhetoric is less important than why it’s finding such an eager audience, says Eliza Filby
You may have seen his turn on Question Time, or his two-and-a-half-hour appearance on The Diary of a CEO – watched by over 3m people. Perhaps you’ve read his book The Trading Game, currently top of the bestseller list. Gary Stevenson is a former Citibank trader turned anti-capitalist campaigner. He’s young, angry and everywhere.
He’s becoming a new kind of public intellectual for disillusioned millennials and Gen Z, who arguably never had much faith in the system. They’ve only ever known stagnating wages, student debt and successive crises. What’s going viral with young people these days isn’t 5am routines or Bitcoin – it’s economic despair.
There’s no doubt Stevenson’s story is extraordinary. A working-class boy from Ilford and a maths genius, he graduated from LSE to become, in his words, Citibank’s “best trader”. He made millions betting on the economy in the aftermath of the 2008 crash. But then he walked away, after realising what his trades were really doing: making the rich richer, the poor poorer. Now, he’s on a mission to expose what he claims is the con of capitalism. His message resonates, partly because of his moral clarity (“people can’t afford to feed their kids”) and partly because of his insider authority – underscored by his casual detachment (“I don’t need to be here; I’ve made millions”).
Gary Stevenson has touched a nerve, and rightly so. Even the most devout free marketeers can’t ignore the reality: the system offers little to young people with no stake in it. Capitalism isn’t working. But is Stevenson the right figure to lead this much-needed debate?
He’s gone relatively unchallenged on Youtube and is only being seriously interrogated now that he’s hit the mainstream. Critics say he oversimplifies complex macroeconomic dynamics, sometimes conflating them. Others question the veracity of his time at Citibank. That may be fair, but it misses the point. In today’s conspiratorial age, any discrediting only fuels his followers’ belief that he’s exposing truths others want hidden.
The failures of capitalism
His popularity says more about the failures of capitalism than his own credibility. And politicians, employers – and frankly, anyone over 45 – should pay attention. We hear of the thousands of young people not in work, training, or education – the disaffected NEETs costing the Treasury billions. But what’s more alarming is the disillusionment among the ambitious middle class. Many young professionals are increasingly sceptical that Britain is a place where they can build a future.
At a recent workshop I led for new recruits at a major bank, I raised the topic of mental health and issues I thought relevant. But what got them most animated was a comment from one participant who wanted to know what the CEO’s plan was for business growth. That economic realism has overtaken the young is backed up by this week’s UK Youth Poll, which shows young people are more concerned about finances, work and job security than climate change, social media or culture wars. The threat of actual war is also bringing everything into sharper focus.
Many young professionals are increasingly sceptical that Britain is a place where they can build a future
It all feels reminiscent of the 1970s – disillusionment with both state and market, a brain drain and a resurgence of blame politics. Gary Stevenson’s solution? Look back to the post-war years of cradle-to-grave welfare and accessible housing. Others hark back to the 1980s advocating entrepreneurship, deregulation and growth. But both visions are rooted in eras that were economically specific, politically unique and generationally unrepeatable.
The Labour Party knows this. Their policy ambitions are already being outpaced by geopolitical turmoil and fiscal constraints.
What we need isn’t a rehash of the past – but a reimagining of the future: one that confronts ageing populations, stagnant productivity, the AI revolution, energy insecurity and our broken housing market. We also need pragmatism, complexity – and yes, a bit of boring old policy detail. That’s a harder conversation to have on Tiktok.
Gary Stevenson’s rise isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s the product of a deeper generational reckoning. Millennials and Gen Z don’t just feel shut out of prosperity – they don’t even recognise it. We now live in an inheritocracy, not a meritocracy. But while Stevenson gives voice to their rage, we must be careful not to mistake virality for vision. Young people deserve more than outrage. They deserve answers.
Eliza Filby is the author of Inheritocracy: The Bank of Mum and Dad