Ours is an age of rampant inequalities and pervasive financial struggles, where the power of big banks and corporations seems overwhelming to the individual. Whilst you might hope for longer term systemic change, what can you do in the shorter term to improve your financial situation and change your relationship with money?
Money-saving expert, financial journalist, broadcaster and LSE alumnus Martin Lewis, in conversation with Nicholas Barr, will discuss his work to empower individuals to have more control of their finances, as well as his campaigning for policy changes to address everyday financial inequality.
Meet our speakers and chair
Martin Lewis CBE (@MartinSLewis) founded the the Money Saving Expert site in 2003 and is currently its Executive Chair. He is an award-winning campaigning journalist and broadcaster, has his own prime-time ITV show, is a newspaper columnist, charity founder and author.
Born in Manchester in 1972, he grew up in Cheshire's Delamere Forest. Today he lives in London with his wife, BBC Click presenter Lara (aka Mrs MSE), and 10-year-old daughter Sapphire (aka Mini MSE). In 2012, he started his own, now live, prime-time ITV series, The Martin Lewis Money Show, which after 11 series is these days a staple of the TV schedule, attracting millions of viewers each week. In 2022, BBC's The Martin Lewis Podcast started and regularly hits the Apple top 10 UK podcast charts. Martin is also a resident expert on many other shows, and a regular guest presenter of ITV's Good Morning Britain. In 2016, he founded the influential Money and Mental Health Policy Institute charity, which he still funds and chairs (see more details on Martin's charity fund).
He has spearheaded major financial justice campaigns, including on reclaiming bank charges and PPI (helping consumers get paid back over £10 billion on those two alone); and successfully campaigned to get financial education on the national curriculum, as well as personally funding over 300,000 free textbooks for all state schools.
Nicholas Barr is Professor of Public Economics at LSE.
More about this event
This event is part of the LSE Festival: People and Change running from Monday 12 to Saturday 17 June 2023, with a series of events exploring how change affects people and how people effect change. Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 15 May.
Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival
Podcast and video
A podcast of this event is available to download from In Conversation with Martin Lewis.
A video of this event is available to watch at In Conversation with Martin Lewis.
Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.