Charles Read is a British economic historian based at the University of Oxford, where he is Senior Tutor and Tutorial Fellow in History at Regent's Park College.[1] He was previously based at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, a Bye-Fellow of Peterhouse, and Junior Proctor of the University in the 2023/24 academic year.[2] He is also a financial journalist who used to write and edit for The Economist.[3]
Charles Read | |
|---|---|
| Born | London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Historian and academic |
| Awards |
|
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Christ's College, Cambridge |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Economic history |
| Institutions | Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Regent's Park College, Oxford |
His research rose to prominence as a result of the financial panic caused by the September 2022 United Kingdom mini-budget, his research on the similar February 1847 budget anticipating the policy mistakes made by the Truss government[4] and for his warnings personally delivered to Kwasi Kwarteng and HM Treasury that the mini budget's policies could lead to financial instability.[5][6][7]
Read has argued that modern online banking can contribute to financial collapse, as people can more quickly withdraw money when they feel under-confident about banking.[8]
A local newspaper has suggested that Read has staked a claim to be 'Cambridge's avatar economist for the 21st century'.[9][10]
Early career
editRead was born in London and is of English, Welsh, Armenian and Ethiopian ancestry.[11][12] He completed BA, MPhil and PhD degrees focussed on economic history at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently worked in research for an investment bank and as a writer and editor at The Economist.[13]
His doctoral research on British economic policy during the Irish famine won more academic prizes for its quality from learned societies than that of any other early-career economic historian of his generation.[14]
After a visiting senior scholarship at the University of Oxford, in 2018 he was elected a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He taught economics and history for both the university and his college, where he was the founding director of the Corpus Bridging Course, the college's flagship widening participation scheme.[15]
In 2022 he was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Historical Society for his contribution to historical scholarship.[16]
In 2023 he was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts on the basis of his work in widening access to those from underrepresented backgrounds at Corpus Christi College, particularly his work founding and directing the Bridging Course.
In October 2023 he was elected by the Regent House as Junior Proctor of the University of Cambridge, whose duties include presiding over all meetings of the University's Governing Body. He is the youngest holder of the role in recent times. [citation needed] He moved to Regent's Park College, Oxford in October 2024.
Academic work
editRead is best known for his two books. The first, "The Great Famine in Ireland and Britain's Financial Crisis" (2022), challenged much of existing historical opinion that assumed the severity of the famine was the result of British colonialism and laissez-faire ideas. Instead it argued that much of the death toll was the result of austerity the British government was forced to impose after the February 1847 budget that announced borrowing to expand spending on relief triggered the financial panic of 1847.[4] The book researched unfunded tax cuts and large scale borrowing to fund relief (in 1847 for Irish famine relief. This was similar to problems faced by 2022's UK government, but "Dr Read didn’t know that Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget would inflict so much damage on the UK in September because the final text for Great Famine was signed off in June and published in October".[17][12] Read delivered a lecture to civil servants at HM Treasury[18] and wrote to Kwasi Kwarteng,[19] the new chancellor of the exchequer, on 8 September 2022 advising him not to make the same mistakes as the February 1847 budget, which saw a fiscal stimulus pushing up market interest rates and causing a financial panic among investors.[5] His advice was not heeded, and as a result [citation needed]rising interest rates caused a crisis in the defined-benefit pensions sector as the cost of their borrowing for investment overtook the returns that they made from it.[20] Kwarteng was sacked and Liz Truss resigned as prime minister.
His second book "Calming the storms: the Carry Trade, the Banking School and British Financial Crises since 1825" (2023) provides a new explanation of British financial crises over the past two hundred years with the relationship between the carry trade and monetary policy at the heart of the mechanism.[21] Severe banking crises in Britain disappeared after 1866 as the Bank of England learnt how to use its monetary policy to prevent the carry trade from causing instability. As the Bank of England dropped these policies with the advent of competition and credit control in 1971, financial crises returned with the secondary banking crisis in 1973–75, the 2007–2008 financial crisis and mini-budget crisis of 2022.[13]
References
edit- ^ "Dr Charles Read". Regent's Park College, Oxford. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
- ^ "Dr Charles Read". Corpus Christi College University of Cambridge.
- ^ "Charles Read, economic historian and journalist". Charles Read, economic historian and journalist.
- ^ a b Charles Read, The Irish Famine and Britain's Financial Crisis (The Boydell Press, 2022)
- ^ a b https://twitter.com/EconCharlesRead/status/1622050159818317825
- ^ Elgot, Jessica (2023-02-05). "Liz Truss's claim she was not warned about mini-budget risks 'misleading'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
- ^ "Dr Charles Read quoted in Liz Truss's press coverage | Faculty of History University of Cambridge". www.hist.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
- ^ "Silicon Valley Bank collapse shakes confidence in U.S. banking, says expert -Xinhua". english.news.cn. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
- ^ Scialom, Mike; https://www.facebook.com/CambridgeIndependent (2023-05-07). "Charles Read's second book offers a glimpse of greatness – if we can learn from the past".
- ^ "Charles Read's second book offers a glimpse of greatness – if we can learn from the past". Cambridge Independent. 2023-05-07. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
- ^ "Podcast | Charles Read, "The Great Famine in Ireland and Britain's…". New Books Network.
- ^ a b "Cambridge author exhumes Irish Famine and details a financial crisis still relevant today". Cambridge Independent. 2022-12-04. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
- ^ a b Calming the Storms. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. 2023. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-11914-9. ISBN 978-3-031-11913-2. S2CID 255712421 – via link.springer.com.
- ^ "Dr Charles Read | Faculty of History University of Cambridge". www.hist.cam.ac.uk.
- ^ "Corpus Bridging Course". Corpus Christi College University of Cambridge.
- ^ "Dr Charles Read elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society". Corpus Christi College University of Cambridge.
- ^ "The Great Famine in Ireland and Britain's Financial Crisis: Myths nailed, villain exposed". The Irish Times.
- ^ "Liz Truss claims she was not 'given a chance' by 'left-wing economic establishment'". NationalWorld. 2023-02-05. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
- ^ "Dan Snow's History Hit - The Budget: Britain's Financial Crisi..." goloudnow.com.
- ^ UK Parliament (7 February 2023). "Leveraged LDI strategies worsened September 2022 financial turmoil".
- ^ Read, Charles (2023). "Calming the Storms". Palgrave Studies in Economic History. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-11914-9. ISSN 2662-6497.