Faisal Islam

The economics discipline is drawing increasing scrutiny and criticism with regards to the traditional training which graduate and undergraduate economics students are receiving. Importantly, among those arguing most vocally for a change in the way that young economists are taught are the ultimate employers of these students, in both the private and the public sector. As the recent crisis all too tragically highlighted, even many of the most acclaimed economists do not necessarily understand how the financial system actually works, how important economic institutions relate to one another and are ultimately ill-prepared to think about appropriate policies at a time of crisis. An increased empathy for history and experience of precedent, as part of an economics education, could correct this. Perhaps if some of the historic discontinuities in both economic performance and policy had held a more formidable place on standard economics courses, it may have been that these eventualities would not have been ‘assumed away’ as impossible. Given that it was the assuming away of these black swan events that precipitated the bubble bursting and the associated financial crisis, this notion warrants serious consideration. With these criticisms in mind, Faisal Islam will be discussing his experiences as an economics correspondent throughout the crisis and will be giving us some insights as to which aspects of the subject he feels have been particularly important to understand following his undergraduate days.

Faisal Islam is a Cambridge-educated economist and an award-winning English journalist and economics editor for Channel 4. He joined the programme in 2004, and has since exposed the Icelandic banking crisis, watched Lehman Brothers fall from Wall Street, investigated emerging economies in India and Singapore and interviewed everyone from the Prime Minister to the President of the World Bank. Faisal won the WorkWorld Foundation's "Broadcast News Reporter of the Year" in 2010 - with the judges saying; "his excellent writing converts abstract economics to something accessible to all, informing viewers in a compelling and original way." In addition he collected numerous awards for his coverage of the Icelandic banking crisis in 2009.