Business
In this epsiode I speak to leading economist, broadcaster, writer and author Liam Halligan. From humble beginnings growing up in an Irish family in North West London, Liam saw his dad work hard to build a construction business during the tough economic times of the late 1970s. Intellectual curiosity and natural ability led to a life changing scholarship at a leading independent school, which eventually led to studying at Warwick and then Oxford University. Balancing various casual jobs and a plethora of sporting activities during his student years, Liam thought he was destined to become an academic. Early economic fact finding missions included walking from the top to the bottom of Sweden, a motorbike trip across Africa and a cycling tour of Washington DC, where he took a research post. A Subsequent research post in Moscow in the ‘Wild West’ years of the mid 1990s led to a chance opportunity to write an op ed for the Moscow Times, which led to his own economics column in that newspaper. Liam’s reputation as a major economic thinker of the emerging post-Soviet region was sealed. As Liam jokes “A lot of people have made a lot more money than me out of my economic analysis of the Russian economy at that time!” Despite a short stint in financial services and the potential to ‘make a lot of money’ working for an investment bank, Liam decided to pursue his passion for economics research, thinking and writing, with stints at The Economist, The Financial Times and for over the past decade as economics columnist for The Telegraph. Working three hours a day fixing up an unmortgageable house before he started work at Channel 4 News, enabled Liam to build the property wealth which underpins his family’s financial security. Liam likes to live a very simple and relatively low-cost lifestyle, and instead finds real riches in his family, his music and seeking the truth about money, people and the economy. His one indulgence? A Martin 15 series steel string electro-acoustic guitar. Now that’s living a rich life! A wonderful episode full of the honesty, humility and candor that is Liam's hallmark.