Adair Turner

Adair Turner served as Chairman of the UK's Financial Services Authority from 2008 to 2013, taking over just as the financial crisis hit. He was known for his broad intellectual approach to financial regulation, going beyond traditional rule-making to question the fundamental social utility of certain financial activities. His 2009 comment that parts of the financial system were "socially useless" caused controversy in the City of London. After the FSA, he became deeply involved in macroeconomic policy debate, arguing in his book "Between Debt and the Devil" that excessive private credit creation was the root cause of financial instability, and advocating for "debt monetization" (central bank money creation to finance fiscal deficits) as a policy tool. He serves as Chair of the Institute for New Economic Thinking.