Steve Hubbard

Like many people I’ve always chatted about politics but became much more serious a few years ago. Politics always seemed to come back to money and so with a friend , John Hipperson, I set out to discover the fundamentals – what was money, who created it, when and why, how did it move – simple stuff – or so I thought!

I’m a retired academic and public sector lecturer and manager with a degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Physics which I gained part-time.

Coming from an engineering and science and background and thinking about macroeconomics is fascinating.

Listening to politicians and following the media I expected macroeconomics to be a coherent system but found major “holes”, loose ends and fundamental assumptions undiscussed and apparently unexplained. This was rather different from my experience in other fields so I investigated further and was shocked by what I found – or didn’t find!

Not being a professional I didn’t expect to understand all the subtleties – I don’t manage that in my own field, but I did expect some agreed basic principles – I’m still searching!

Part of the fun has been listening to and meeting people who are involved in macroeconomics in so many different ways including politicians and decision-makers, academics and of course many lay people. Also with John I continue to enjoy writing articles and contributing for instance to House of Commons Treasury Select Committees when they call for papers.

Despite still feeling something of an outsider I would like to contribute in assisting the general public as well as many politicians and policy-makers to acquire a more accurate understanding of macroeconomic systems which still too often seems absent. Among other benefits this would help spending decisions to be considered and explained against a more factual background, and open the way for new creative ideas on all sides.

It’s a great pleasure to be involved with the TTF and to work to try and make a difference in bringing transparency and awareness to as many people as possible.