Martin Wolf | |
|---|---|
 Wolf in 2015 | |
| Born | Martin Harry Wolf (1946-08-16)16 August 1946 (age 79)[1] London |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Citizenship | British |
| Education | University College School |
| Alma mater | University of Oxford (BA, MPhil) |
| Subject | Economics |
| Notable awards | Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award (2019) |
| Spouse | |
| Website | |
www | |
Martin Harry WolfCBE (born 16 August 1946 in London) is a British journalist who focuses oneconomics.[1][2] He is the chief economics commentator at theFinancial Times.[3] He also writes a weekly column for the French newspaperLe Monde.[4][5][6]
Wolf was born in London, in 1946.[1] His father Edmund was anAustrian Jewish playwright who migrated fromVienna to England before World War II.[7]In London, Edmund met Wolf's mother, aDutch Jew who had lost nearly thirty close relatives in theHolocaust.[8] Wolf recalls that his background left him wary of political extremes and encouraged his interest in economics, as he felt economic policy mistakes were one of theroot causes of World War II.[7] He was an active supporter of theLabour Party until the early 1970s.[8]
Wolf was privately educated atUniversity College School,[1] a day school for boys inHampstead in north west London, and theUniversity of Oxford where in 1967 he was a student ofCorpus Christi College, Oxford for his undergraduate studies. He initially readclassics before switching toPhilosophy, Politics and Economics.[9]As apostgraduate student Wolf moved on toNuffield College, Oxford, which he left with aMaster of Philosophy degree (MPhil) in economics in 1971. Wolf has said that he never pursued a PhD, because he "didn't want to become an academic".[8][1]
In 1971, Wolf joined theWorld Bank's young professionals programme, becoming a senior economist in 1974. By the start of the eighties, Wolf was deeply disillusioned with the Bank's policies undertaken under the direction ofRobert McNamara: the Bank had been strongly pushing for increased capital flows to developing countries, which had resulted in many of them suffering debt crises by the early 1980s. Seeing the results of misjudged intervention by global authorities and also influenced from the early 1970s by various works critical of government intervention, such asFriedrich Hayek'sThe Road to Serfdom, Wolf shifted his views towards the right and the free market.[7][8]
Wolf left the World Bank in 1981, to become Director of Studies at theTrade Policy Research Centre, in London. He joined theFinancial Times in 1987, where he has been associate editor since 1990 and chief economics commentator since 1996. Up until the late 2000s, Wolf was an influential advocate ofglobalisation and thefree market.
In addition to his journalism and participation in various international forums, Wolf had also attempted to influence opinion with his books; he has stated that his 2004 book,Why Globalization Works,[10] was intended to be a persuasive work rather than an academic study. By 2008, Wolf had become disillusioned with theories promoting what he came to see excessive reliance on theprivate sector. While remaining a pragmatist free of binding commitments to any one ideology, Wolf's views partially shifted away from free market thinking back to the Keynesian ideas he had been taught while young.[7][8]
He became one of the more influential drivers of the2008–2009 Keynesian resurgence, and in late 2008 and early 2009, he used his platform on theFinancial Times to advocate a massive fiscal and monetary response to the2008 financial crisis. According toJulia Ioffe writing in 2009 forThe New Republic, he was "arguably the most widely trusted pundit" of the crisis.[7] Wolf is a supporter of aland value tax.[11]
Between 2010 and 2011, Wolf served on theIndependent Commission on Banking.[citation needed]
In 2012, Wolf stated in remarks for the Financial Times thatpublic goods are building blocks of civilisation: security and safety, knowledge and science, asustainable environment, trust, theRechtsstaat, and economic and financial stability.[12]
Wolf discussed theeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in an April 2020 editorial for theFinancial Times titled "The world economy is now collapsing", where he called it the "biggest economic disaster since theDepression of the 1930s".[13]
Wolf maintained in December 2022 the government's failure to maintain real pay in the public sector had an adverse effect on recruitment and retention of staff. Since 2010 real average pay rose 5.5% in the private sector till September 2022, but fell 5.9% in the public sector. If it wanted to, the government could raise taxes to pay for pay rises. There were too few key public sector staff and their quality raised concerns. NHS England data "show a vacancy rate of 11.9 per cent as at September 30 2022 within the Registered Nursing staff group (47,496 vacancies). This is an increase from the same period in the previous year, when the vacancy rate was 10.5 per cent (39,931 vacancies)." Also too few teachers were recruited in subjects like physics or design & technology. Poor health damaged labour supply. Allowing inflation to bring real pay down and expecting services to maintain or improve standards was in Wolf's opinion "plainly dishonest." Wolf stated the government should keep public sector pay comparable with private sector pay particularly where there are noteworthy recruitment and retention issues.[14]
Wolf was joint winner of the Wincott Foundation senior prize for excellence in financial journalism in both 1989 and 1997. He won the RTZ David Watt memorial prize in 1994. In 2000. Wolf was awarded theCBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters,honoris causa, by theUniversity of Nottingham in 2006, and was made Doctor of Science (Economics) ofUniversity of London,honoris causa, by theLondon School of Economics in the same year. In 2018, on the occasion of theKU LeuvenPatron Saint's Day he received adoctorate honoris causa of the university[15]
Wolf is a regular participant in the annualBilderberg meetings of politicians and bankers. He is visiting fellow ofNuffield College, Oxford, a Special Professor at theUniversity of Nottingham and an honorary fellow of the Oxford Institute for Economic Policy. He has been a forum fellow at the annual meeting of theWorld Economic Forum in Davos since 1999.[16] Wolf has been named in the top 100 lists of global thinkers byProspect[17] and byForeign Policy magazine.[18]
Wolf is regarded as "staggeringly well connected" within financial circles.[7] His friends include leading financiers such asMohamed A. El-Erian; politicians such asManmohan Singh,Timothy Geithner andEd Balls; many leading economists; central bankers such asMervyn King: according to Wolf, he knows all significant central bankers.[7] Despite Wolf's close connections with the powerful, he is trusted for his independence and is known to criticise initiatives promoted by his friends when he considers it to be in the public interest.[7] Wolf is widely regarded as one of the most influential economics journalists in the world.Lawrence H. Summers has called him "the world's preeminent financial journalist."[19] Mohamed A. El-Erian, former CEO ofPIMCO, said Wolf is "by far, the most influential economic columnist out there".[7]Paul Krugman wrote of him that "Wolf doesn't even have a PhD. And that matters not at all; what he has is a keen sense of observation, a level head, and an open mind."[20]
Prospect magazine described him as "the Anglosphere's most influential finance journalist",[17] while economistKenneth Rogoff has said, "He really is the premier financial and economics writer in the world".[7] In 2012, he received theIschia International Journalism Award.
In 2019, Wolf received theGerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award from theUCLA Anderson School of Management.[21]
Wolf marriedAlison Margaret Potter in 1970 and has three children.[1]
Media related toMartin Wolf at Wikimedia Commons