Formerly The Helpful Economist. I've now rebranded myself as The Artist-Economist as this better represents who I am as a whole person.
Maybe you’ve felt it too — that quiet sense that something doesn’t add up. The world feels upside down, yet we’re expected to carry on as if everything makes sense. Even when the economy is growing and the experts assure us we’re on the right track. still, people feel more anxious, more exhausted, more alone.
You’re not imagining it. The system has been lying to you.
For nearly forty years, I worked as a professional economist. I advised governments, multinationals, and legal teams. I was part of the machine. But behind the logic and data, something always felt hollow. The profits rose — and so did inequality, ecological damage, and despair. Eventually, I reached breaking point. I found myself not just disillusioned with the system, but broken by it. Recovery became my turning point. And with it, something unexpected: a spiritual awakening.
I believe we need radical new economic ideas and I’ll be exploring that on the channel. An economics that considers alternatives to the neoliberal, capitalist growth model. An economics that doesn’t treat people as commodities & cares about the environment. A consideration of what happens when you take spiritual truths seriously and apply them to economics. Not in a vague or preachy way, but in a grounded, radical, clear-eyed way. What if we built our understanding of the economy not around scarcity, fear and competition, but around connection, healing, love, and sufficiency? What if economics wasn’t about control, but about meaning?
The Artist Economist is not a brand, or a gimmick. It’s a new lens. These are not tweaks to the system — they’re propositions for transformation. You can accept them, reject them, or try them out for yourself. All I ask is that you stay open to the possibility that something deeper — something more human — is waiting to emerge.
II’ve been a professional economist for the past 35 years. After lecturing in economics, I joined the UK Government Economic Service. I’ve been a government policy & regulatory consultant for the past 35 years, including 7 years as Chief Economist at the law firm Mayer Brown & freelance since 2007. HI have a BA & MSc Economics and an MA Fine Art.
