Barry's Economics

Barry's Economics
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Barry’s Economics is about explaining the economy without the jargon. Using humour, storytelling, and behavioural science, Barry explores wealth, power, inequality, and the hidden forces shaping everyday life.

  1. 1d ago

    I've Watched Genius Comedians Vanish - Here's Why | Barry's Economics

    I've been a comedian since I was 15 and in that time I've watched some of the most talented people of my generation become household names. And I've also watched some of the most talented people of my generation disappear completely.Not because they weren't good enough or because they didn't work hard enough.Because talent and recognition are two completely different things.This video started with a conversation with James Acaster. I asked him a simple question:Who is the most influential comedian people have never heard of?His answer was Luisa Omielan.What followed was a conversation about influence, recognition, success and why some people shape entire industries without receiving the credit they deserve.Along the way, it led me into Abraham Wald's famous work on survivorship bias during World War II, Daniel Kahneman's research on how we create stories about success, and a much bigger question:What if meritocracy isn't wrong because talent doesn't matter?What if it's wrong because we've confused talent with visibility?This is the first in a series about meritocracy.What we get right about it.What we get catastrophically wrong about it.And what the science actually says about how success works.Sources ReferencedWald, A. (1943) – A Method of Estimating Plane Vulnerability Based on Damage of SurvivorsTaleb, N.N. (2007) – The Black SwanKahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1974) – Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and BiasesKahneman, D. (2011) – Thinking, Fast and SlowDuckworth, A. et al. (2007) – Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term GoalsI’m Barry Ferns – a comedian whose personal journey through failure, homelessness, and rebuilding led me to explore the socio and behavioural economics of inequality.This channel digs into how systems of power shape our identity, behaviour, and beliefs, and how we can shift the stories we tell ourselves and each other about poverty, inequality, and who’s to blame.How to Support Barry’s EconomicsHelp us stay independent and keep making videos like this.https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomicshttps://ko-fi.com/barryseconomicshttps://www.patreon.com/barryseconomicsFollow and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!More about me: https://barryferns.co.uk/You can also follow me on Tiktok: tiktok.com/@barryseconomicsInstagram: instagram.com/barryseconomicsTwitter: twitter.com/barryseconomicsSubstack: https://substack.com/@barryseconomicsBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/barryseconomics.bsky.socialReddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/barryferns/If you’re new to this, check out Gary's Economics first! His channel gives the structural and financial perspective. This one adds the lived, social and emotional side.Support Gary's Wealth Tax Campaign Here: https://buy.stripe.com/dRm4gs9Nl1L6eqWbUydjO00Want to see the stand-up side of all this?Find my live comedy and storytelling here:https://www.youtube.com/@mrbarryfernsTo learn more about my comedy club, Angel Comedy, and buy tickets for shows head here: https://www.angelcomedy.co.uk/

  2. Jul 27

    The Psychological Trick That Kills Every Wealth Tax - Barry's Economics

    Why Doesn't It Seem Possible to Tax The Rich Even a Little Bit More? Well...There's a trick that's been used against the public for over seventy years. It's completely legal, it's very well funded, and it's working on you right now. It doesn't involve lying. That's the clever part. You never have to say anything false. I want to show you how this trick works, and you'll spot it everywhere. In every news debate, every panel show, every politician saying "we need to be careful here." And I want to show you the one time in British history we actually beat it. Which matters, because the same trick is being run again, right now, on the biggest question in the country I’m Barry Ferns, a comedian whose personal journey through failure, homelessness, and rebuilding led me to explore the socio and behavioural economics of inequality. No sponsors, ever.... this channel is funded by viewers: ▶ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barryseconomics ▶ Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomics https://paypal.me/barryseconomics This channel digs into how systems of power shape our identity, behaviour, and beliefs, and how we can shift the stories we tell ourselves and each other about poverty, inequality, and who’s to blame. How to Support Barry’s Economics Help us stay independent and keep making videos like this. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomics https://ko-fi.com/barryseconomics https://paypal.me/barryseconomics https://www.patreon.com/barryseconomics More about me: https://barryferns.co.uk/ Mailing List Sign-up: https://tr.ee/0BKMVw You can also follow me on Tiktok: tiktok.com/@barryseconomics Instagram: instagram.com/barryseconomics Twitter: twitter.com/barryseconomics Substack: https://substack.com/@barryseconomics BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/barryseconomics.bsky.social Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/barryferns/ If you’re new to this, check out Gary's Economics first! His channel gives the structural and financial perspective. This one adds the lived, social and emotional side. Support Gary's Wealth Tax Campaign Here: https://buy.stripe.com/dRm4gs9Nl1L6eqWbUydjO00 Want to see the stand-up side of all this? Find my live comedy and storytelling here: https://www.youtube.com/@mrbarryferns To learn more about my comedy club, Angel Comedy, and buy tickets for shows head here: https://www.angelcomedy.co.uk/

  3. Jul 20

    Nobody succeeds alone - here's what they're not telling you - Barry's Economics

    This is the final part of my conversation with Gary Stevenson, recorded before his documentary came out, and it's the most personal of the three episodes. We talk about why meritocracy is a myth, why success is mostly survivorship bias, and why Gary treats fame and politics as a game (his words, not mine, and he's honest about what that's covering for). He also breaks down Jeff Bezos's "why are nurses paying taxes" clip and explains the oldest trick in the book: bribing you with your own money. And he gives me my 100,000 subscriber play button, which meant more than I can easily say. This channel exists because of Gary's callout in May, and because of the community around it. This episode is about that community, and how you can be part of it, whether that's making videos, joining a party, talking to your friends and family, or just sharing the ideas in your own words. NB: The full uncut conversation is on my Patreon I’m Barry Ferns, a comedian whose personal journey through failure, homelessness, and rebuilding led me to explore the socio and behavioural economics of inequality. No sponsors, ever.... this channel is funded by viewers: ▶ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barryseconomics ▶ Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomics https://paypal.me/barryseconomics This channel digs into how systems of power shape our identity, behaviour, and beliefs, and how we can shift the stories we tell ourselves and each other about poverty, inequality, and who’s to blame. How to Support Barry’s Economics Help us stay independent and keep making videos like this. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomics https://ko-fi.com/barryseconomics https://paypal.me/barryseconomics https://www.patreon.com/barryseconomics Subscribe or follow for future episodes! More about me: https://barryferns.co.uk/ Mailing List Sign-up: https://tr.ee/0BKMVw You can also follow me on Tiktok: tiktok.com/@barryseconomics Instagram: instagram.com/barryseconomics Twitter: twitter.com/barryseconomics Substack: https://substack.com/@barryseconomics BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/barryseconomics.bsky.social Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/barryferns/ If you’re new to this, check out Gary's Economics first! His channel gives the structural and financial perspective. This one adds the lived, social and emotional side. Support Gary's Wealth Tax Campaign Here: https://buy.stripe.com/dRm4gs9Nl1L6eqWbUydjO00 Want to see the stand-up side of all this? Find my live comedy and storytelling here: https://www.youtube.com/@mrbarryferns To learn more about my comedy club, Angel Comedy, and buy tickets for shows head here: https://www.angelcomedy.co.uk/

  4. Jul 13

    The Trick The Rich Play On The Poor - Barry's Economics

    Part 2 of my Conversation with Gary Stevenson - the economist who quit a trading job that made him millions and has spent the years since campaigning for a wealth tax, and this week his documentary "How to Get Filthy Rich" aired on Channel 4, Wednesday 8th July at 9pm.Gary came in for a two and a half hour conversation, and this is the second of three episodes we've cut from it. "How to Get Filthy Rich" aired Wednesday 8th July, 9pm, Channel 4.I’m Barry Ferns – a comedian whose personal journey through failure, homelessness, and rebuilding led me to explore the socio and behavioural economics of inequality.How to Support Barry’s EconomicsHelp us stay independent and keep making videos like this.https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomicshttps://ko-fi.com/barryseconomicshttps://paypal.me/barryseconomicshttps://patreon.com/BarrysEconomics?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink / barryseconomics Follow and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!More about me: https://barryferns.co.uk/Mailing List Sign-up: https://tr.ee/0BKMVwYou can also follow me on Tiktok: tiktok.com/@barryseconomicsInstagram: instagram.com/barryseconomicsTwitter: twitter.com/barryseconomicsSubstack: https://substack.com/@barryseconomicsBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/barryseconomicsReddit: / barryferns

  5. Jul 8

    The Channel 4 Documentary Everyone's About to Watch - Barry's Economics

    Gary Stevenson quit a trading job that made him millions and has spent the years since campaigning for a wealth tax, and this week his documentary "How to Get Filthy Rich" airs on Channel 4, Wednesday 8th July at 9pm.Gary came in for a two and a half hour conversation, and this is the first of three episodes we've cut from it. We talk about the billionaire he interviewed who's never once walked in the park his flat overlooks, what trading floors actually do to the people inside them, and why he thinks cynicism functions as a tax on ordinary people. How to Get Filthy Rich airs Wednesday 8th July, 9pm, Channel 4.I’m Barry Ferns – a comedian whose personal journey through failure, homelessness, and rebuilding led me to explore the socio and behavioural economics of inequality.How to Support Barry’s EconomicsHelp us stay independent and keep making videos like this.https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomicshttps://ko-fi.com/barryseconomicshttps://paypal.me/barryseconomicshttps://www.patreon.com/barryseconomicsFollow and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!More about me: https://barryferns.co.uk/Mailing List Sign-up: https://tr.ee/0BKMVwYou can also follow me on Tiktok: tiktok.com/@barryseconomicsInstagram: instagram.com/barryseconomicsTwitter: twitter.com/barryseconomicsSubstack: https://substack.com/@barryseconomicsBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/barryseconomics.bsky.socialReddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/barryferns/If you’re new to this, check out Gary's Economics first! His channel gives the structural and financial perspective. This one adds the lived, social and emotional side.Support Gary's Wealth Tax Campaign Here: https://buy.stripe.com/dRm4gs9Nl1L6eqWbUydjO00Want to see the stand-up side of all this?Find my live comedy and storytelling here:https://www.youtube.com/@mrbarryfernsTo learn more about my comedy club, Angel Comedy, and buy tickets for shows head here: https://www.angelcomedy.co.uk/

  6. Jun 30

    The Psychological Trick That Keeps you Obedient - Barry's Economics

    Why do poorer people love Period Dramas like Downton Abbey, that adore the very Privileged aristocracies that kept their great-grandparents in poverty? Why do we worship Billionaires despite their clear exploitative behaviours? This is the psychology of how shows about the British class system became comfort viewing for the people it should enrage. And how we fall in love with the Myths of the Super Rich today. I love Downton Abbey too. That's the problem. In this video I use John Jost's System Justification Theory and Robert Sapolsky's research on the neurobiology of inequality to explain why people at the bottom of a hierarchy so often defend it, and why a beautiful house full of deferential servants works less like escapism and more like an anaesthetic. We get into why "poor but happy" stories make inequality feel fair, how years of low status physically rewire the brain and leave you more risk-averse and more attached to whatever stability exists, and the one hopeful catch: the moment you can name what a story is doing to you, it starts to lose its power. You don't haveto stop watching Downton. Just watch it the way a doctor watches a cigarette advert. Sources & further reading: Jost & Kay (2003), "Complementary Justice", J. Personality & Social Psychology Jost & Hunyady (2002), "The Palliative Function of Ideology" Jost (2019), A Theory of System Justification, Harvard University Press Sapolsky (1990), "Adrenocortical Function, Social Rank, and Personality Among Wild Baboons" Friestad & Wright (1994), "The Persuasion Knowledge Model" I’m Barry Ferns, a comedian whose personal journey through failure, homelessness, and rebuilding led me to explore the socio and behavioural economics of inequality. This channel digs into how systems of power shape our identity, behaviour, and beliefs, and how we can shift the stories we tell ourselves and each other about poverty, inequality, and who’s to blame. How to Support Barry’s Economics Help us stay independent and keep making videos like this. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomics https://ko-fi.com/barryseconomics https://www.patreon.com/barryseconomics If you enjoyed the episode, leave a review and follow for future episodes Mailing List: https://barryferns.co.uk/ You can also follow me on Tiktok: tiktok.com/@barryseconomics Instagram: instagram.com/barryseconomics Twitter: twitter.com/barryseconomics Substack: https://substack.com/@barryseconomics BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/barryseconomics.bsky.social Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/barryferns/ If you’re new to this, check out Gary's Economics first! His channel gives the structural and financial perspective. This one adds the lived, social and emotional side. Support Gary's Wealth Tax Campaign Here: https://buy.stripe.com/dRm4gs9Nl1L6eqWbUydjO00 Want to see the stand-up side of all this? Find my live comedy and storytelling here: https://www.youtube.com/@mrbarryferns To learn more about my comedy club, Angel Comedy, and buy tickets for shows head here: https://www.angelcomedy.co.uk/

  7. Jun 22

    Nigel Farage Has Already Won (And Nobody Noticed) - Barry's Economics

    Everyone is still trying to take Nigel Farage down... and every attack makes himstronger. Here's the uncomfortable truth: If you attack him: he's already won, and almost nobody hasnoticed why.Farage isn't the disease. He's the symptom. In this video I show that the entire Political strategy of beating him has failed for decades because he isn't competing in the market for policies, not at all... he's competing in the acknowledgement market, and that's a market the mainstream parties abandoned 45 years ago.Using Seligman and Maier's research on learned helplessness, the real history ofrising inequality since 1979, and a bit of economics about why some demand isinelastic, I lay out how the gap he's filling was built.... by governments of bothparties.... and why the only thing that actually shuts him down isn't attacking theman. It's closing the gap that created him.This isn't a defence of Nigel Farage. It's an argument that the way we fight him is handing him the win.No sponsors, ever.... this channel is funded by viewers:▶ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barryseconomics▶ Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomicshttps://paypal.me/barryseconomicsSources & further reading:Maier & Seligman (2016), "Learned Helplessness at Fifty", Psychological ReviewHope & Limberg (2020), "The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich", LSEIMF Staff Discussion Note (2015), "Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality"Römer (2022), "Poverty, Inequality Statistics and Knowledge Politics Under Thatcher"Trussell Trust / House of Commons Library (2025), food bank statistics I’m Barry Ferns – a comedian whose personal journey through failure, homelessness, and rebuilding led me to explore the socio and behavioural economics of inequality.This channel digs into how systems of power shape our identity, behaviour, and beliefs, and how we can shift the stories we tell ourselves and each other about poverty, inequality, and who’s to blame.How to Support Barry’s EconomicsHelp us stay independent and keep making videos like this.https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomicshttps://ko-fi.com/barryseconomicshttps://paypal.me/barryseconomicshttps://www.patreon.com/barryseconomicsFollow and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!Mailing list sign-up: https://barryferns.co.uk/You can also follow me on Tiktok: tiktok.com/@barryseconomicsInstagram: instagram.com/barryseconomicsTwitter: twitter.com/barryseconomicsSubstack: https://substack.com/@barryseconomicsBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/barryseconomics.bsky.socialReddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/barryferns/If you’re new to this, check out Gary's Economics first! His channel gives the structural and financial perspective. This one adds the lived, social and emotional side.Support Gary's Wealth Tax Campaign Here: https://buy.stripe.com/dRm4gs9Nl1L6eqWbUydjO00Want to see the stand-up side of all this?Find my live comedy and storytelling here:https://www.youtube.com/@mrbarryfernsTo learn more about my comedy club, Angel Comedy, and buy tickets for shows head here: https://www.angelcomedy.co.uk/

  8. Jun 15

    An Earl Stole The Sandwich. The Rich Still Use The Trick - Barry's Economics

    In 1762, the Earl of Sandwich asked for meat between two slices of bread. Did he invent the Sandwich? Maybe Not - As People had been doing this for centuries. But he had power, prestige, and profile, so he got to "name" it.Economics works exactly the same way."Job Creators." "GDP growth." "Trickle-down." These aren't neutral terms but are the stories written by people with naming rights. Filmed in Sandwich, Kent. Yes, really.How to Support Barry’s EconomicsHelp us stay independent and keep making videos like this.https://www.buymeacoffee.com/barryseconomicshttps://ko-fi.com/barryseconomicshttps://paypal.me/barryseconomicsIf you’re new to this, check out Gary's Economics first! His channel gives the structural and financial perspective. This one adds the lived, social and emotional side.Support Gary's Wealth Tax Campaign Here: https://buy.stripe.com/dRm4gs9Nl1L6eqWbUydjO00Want to see the stand-up side of all this?Find my live comedy and storytelling here:https://www.youtube.com/@mrbarryfernsTo learn more about my comedy club, Angel Comedy, and buy tickets for shows head here: https://www.angelcomedy.co.uk/

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5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Barry’s Economics is about explaining the economy without the jargon. Using humour, storytelling, and behavioural science, Barry explores wealth, power, inequality, and the hidden forces shaping everyday life.

Information

  • Creator
    Barry's Economics
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    65
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Barry's Economics
  • Show Website
    Barry's Economics

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