Money Talks with Liam Halligan: Patrick Minford, Professor of Economics

Money Talks with Liam Halligan

Welcome to Money Talks – a series of interviews with Liam Halligan, Economics and Business Editor of GB News.

In this episode, Liam talks to Patrick Minford, Professor of Economics at Cardiff University. During the Conservative leadership contest, when Liz Truss was asked to name any economists who backed her plans, she replied “Patrick Minford.”

Previously based at Liverpool University, Minford made his name as one of the “monetarists” who revolutionised economic thinking in the late 1970s and early 80s. His “Liverpool model” of the economy was based on rational expectations – the idea people make decisions on available information and learn from past experience – which became a popular explanation of why high inflation is hard to shift.

Back then, after 364 economists wrote to the Times attacking the 1981 budget as deflationary, Minford wrote a letter contradicting them, and later became an advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Now 79, Minford agrees with Truss that tax cuts are needed to prevent the economy sliding into recession. He has encouraged the incoming Prime Minister to face down the Treasury - and give stronger economic growth a higher priority than immediately reducing the national debt.

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