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Ed Conway
Ed Conway
Ed Conway
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Edmund Conway (born 1979) is an English journalist who is the Economics Editor of Sky News, the 24-hour television news service operated by Sky Group. He is based at Sky Central in Osterley in West London. He is a former correspondent for the Daily Mail newspaper and the Economics Editor of The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph newspapers.[2] He became Sky News' first Economics Editor in 2011.[3]

Key Information

Education

[edit]

From 1993 to 1998, Conway was educated at The Oratory School,[4] a Roman Catholic boarding independent school for boys in the village of Woodcote in Oxfordshire, followed by Pembroke College, Oxford, where he took an MA in English, and after having worked for several years, gained a Fulbright Scholarship to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in the United States,[4][5] where he took an MPA (a master's degree in Public Administration).[6]

Life and career

[edit]

Conway was formerly an economics correspondent for the Daily Mail newspaper, followed by the Economics Editor of The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph newspapers.[3]

In August 2011, Conway joined Sky News as economics editor and covered topics including financial market crisis Great Recession and euro crisis.[3][7] He is also known for his numerous stories including a G20 summit, Greek default and its rescue fund.[8][5][9] Among his many interviewees are the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, and the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. During the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis, he was the first to reveal the Bank of England's plans to create additional money through quantitative easing, and to warn of the funding gap in the banking system which later led to the collapse of Northern Rock.[5]

Publications

[edit]

Conway is the author of 50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know, first published in September 2009. The book has been translated into thirteen languages.[10]

In May 2014, he published The Summit: The Biggest Battle of the Second World War - fought behind closed doors.[11]

In 2023, he published Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future, which was shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award that year.[12] In 2024, Material World was also shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize.[13]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Ed Conway

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Ed Conway is a British , broadcaster, and specializing in and , serving as the Economics and Data Editor at , where he covers major UK and international economic, business, and political stories. He has held previous roles as economics editor at and , and as economics correspondent at the , beginning his coverage of in 2003. Conway contributes regularly as an economics columnist for and , and serves as a governor of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. His journalism has earned numerous awards, including for breaking exclusive reports on banking and the , and he has lectured on the at institutions such as the London School of Economics and the US Treasury. As an , Conway has written books elucidating economic concepts and historical events, such as 50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know (2009), The Summit: The Biggest Battle of the Second World War—Fought Behind Closed Doors (2014) on the , and Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization (2023), a shortlisted for the Business Book of the Year and praised by outlets including and .

Early Life and Education

Early Life

Edmund Alexander Conway was born on 10 November 1979.

Education

Ed Conway studied English at , earning an MA after matriculating in 1999. Following several years in , he pursued graduate studies at the at , where he completed a as a Fulbright Scholar and Shorenstein Fellow. This public policy-focused program, undertaken around 2010–2011, equipped him with analytical tools in and that later informed his specialized reporting on macroeconomic trends and data interpretation.

Professional Career

Early Journalism Roles

Conway entered professional journalism shortly after completing his undergraduate studies at Pembroke College, Oxford, joining the Daily Mail as an economics correspondent around 2003. In this initial role, he focused on reporting economic policy, financial markets, and business developments, honing skills in analyzing complex data and macroeconomic trends that would characterize his later work. His coverage during this period emphasized empirical economic indicators and their implications for public policy, foreshadowing a career emphasis on evidence-based economic narratives rather than speculative commentary. This foundational experience at the Daily Mail provided Conway with practical training in deadline-driven economic journalism, including interpreting official statistics and interviewing policymakers, before advancing to more senior positions.

Tenure at The Daily Telegraph

Ed Conway joined The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph as Economics Editor in 2004, at the age of 25, marking him as the youngest individual to hold that position at a national newspaper. In this role, he specialized in UK and international economic reporting, focusing on business, policy, and financial markets amid the mid-2000s economic expansion and subsequent turbulence. From 2004 to 2011, Conway's coverage emphasized empirical analysis of macroeconomic trends, including decisions, shifts, and corporate performance data. He reported on events such as the Bank of England's monetary responses to emerging inflationary pressures and productivity challenges, drawing on and insider sources to highlight causal links between policy actions and economic outcomes. Notable contributions included examinations of financing gaps, such as a report on projected £50 billion shortfalls in NHS budgets warned by the IMF, underscoring structural fiscal risks in the UK economy. Conway also authored weekly op-ed columns, providing first-principles breakdowns of complex economic data to inform public understanding of issues like risks and precursors during the 2008-2009 downturn. These pieces critiqued short-term policy myopia, such as the Bank of England's horizons, based on econometric evidence from think tanks and market indicators, thereby shaping discourse on sustainable growth strategies in print media. His work at the Telegraph established him as a key voice in , prioritizing verifiable metrics over narrative-driven interpretations.

Role at Sky News

Conway serves as Sky News's Economics and Data Editor, a role in which he delivers broadcast analyses and exclusive reporting on UK and global economic developments, often utilizing data visualizations to elucidate complex trends. Appointed as the channel's inaugural Economics Editor in 2011, he has since expanded his focus to incorporate data-driven storytelling, breaking stories on international economics and policy implications. In October 2025, Conway reported from "data centre alley" in , examining the infrastructure powering AI and cloud services amid surging electricity demands from artificial intelligence expansion, which he described as "the biggest thing happening in the economy right now." This coverage highlighted the energy-intensive nature of data centers, with facilities requiring vast power resources equivalent to those of small cities, raising questions about grid capacity and sustainability in the and beyond. Conway also unpacked the International Monetary Fund's October 2025 World Economic Outlook, forecasting the as the second-fastest growing economy for the year but warning of elevated inflation risks and global uncertainties, including fiscal pressures in and China's slowdown. His analyses emphasized empirical data on growth projections—UK GDP at around 1.1% for 2025—and critiqued policy risks, such as the UK's timelines exacerbating energy vulnerabilities amid rising AI-driven power needs. These broadcasts underscore his emphasis on causal links between technological shifts, supply chains, and macroeconomic stability.

Publications

Major Books

Ed Conway's inaugural book, 50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know, published in 2009 by Quercus, serves as an introductory guide to core principles, covering topics such as dynamics, interest rates, , and the mechanics of financial crises like the 2008 recession. The work emphasizes empirical patterns in market behavior and policy responses, drawing on historical examples to illustrate causal links between , , and economic booms or busts, while avoiding prescriptive ideologies in favor of descriptive analysis. In The Summit: Bretton Woods, 1944: J.M. Keynes and the Reshaping of the Global Economy, released in 2014 by Pegasus Books, Conway chronicles the July 1944 conference in , where 730 delegates from 44 Allied nations, including Soviet representatives, negotiated the postwar international monetary framework amid . The narrative, based on diaries, oral histories, and unpublished documents, details clashes between British economist ' vision for a balanced system with a global currency unit () and U.S. Treasury official Harry Dexter White's push for dollar-centric institutions like the (IMF) and World Bank, resulting in fixed exchange rates pegged to the U.S. dollar and gold. Conway traces the causal chain to long-term outcomes, including the Soviet Union's non-ratification of agreements despite participation, the eventual 1971 ending dollar-gold convertibility, and the persistence of dollar dominance, underscoring how wartime power imbalances shaped enduring monetary instabilities rather than Keynes' idealized stability. Conway's 2023 book, Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization, published by Knopf, examines the foundational roles of , iron, copper, , , and rare earth elements in industrial and technological progress, from ancient to contemporary supply chains for batteries and semiconductors. Through on-site reporting from mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Taiwanese chip factories, and Australian lithium operations, the book highlights empirical extraction volumes—such as global annual usage exceeding 50 billion tons for and —and causal bottlenecks, including geopolitical dependencies on China for 80-90% of rare earth processing and mining. Conway argues that physical and thermodynamic limits, not merely financial or regulatory factors, constrain rapid scaling of and renewables, as evidenced by the material intensity of solar panels (requiring 5-10 tons of materials per megawatt) and electric vehicles (demanding 8 times more minerals than counterparts), challenging assumptions of infinite substitutability in energy transitions.

Other Writings and Columns

Ed Conway serves as a regular columnist for and Sunday Times, where his contributions analyze current economic indicators, trends, and structural imbalances in the UK , often drawing on official releases such as GDP figures and statistics. In addition to columns, Conway operates a newsletter entitled Material World, initiated on January 31, 2023, which delivers essays exploring overlooked aspects of global resource dynamics, including dependencies for industrial metals and the geopolitical implications of energy imports. Examples include examinations of Canada's role in U.S. oil supply amid policies, published February 2, 2025, and the strategic significance of salt in future systems, dated July 23, 2023. These pieces prioritize empirical observations of material constraints over prescriptive policy recommendations. Conway has also maintained a personal , The Real , which emphasizes data-centric explorations of economic realities, such as verifiable metrics on flows and industrial output, distinct from broader journalistic or output. His website, edmundconway.com, hosts extended articles and data deep dives that align with this approach, including analyses of economic value chains updated as recently as September 2022.

Key Analyses and Views

Energy Transition and Nuclear Power

Ed Conway has advocated for substantial investment in as a means to secure reliable energy supply in the , drawing on the country's historical pioneering role with the opening of Calder Hall, the world's first commercial station, in 1956. In a analysis, he highlighted Britain's untapped potential as an "energy superpower," arguing that leveraging this legacy through expanded nuclear capacity could deliver "energy plenty" rather than scarcity, especially amid rising demands from electrification and data centers. Conway endorsed proposals for accelerated nuclear deployment by streamlining planning and regulatory hurdles, as pledged by UK Energy Secretary in early 2025, viewing such measures as critical to overcoming barriers to baseload power generation. Conway critiqued the United Kingdom's cessation of -fired on September 30, 2024, as the first major economy to fully phase out , terming it a high-stakes experiment in rapid elimination without commensurate baseload replacements. In a New York Times opinion piece, he warned that the shift to intermittent renewables like —despite generating over 40% of UK in 2024—exposes to volatility, evidenced by near-miss blackouts and elevated wholesale prices during low-wind periods, as previously provided dispatchable capacity with load factors exceeding 50%. This transition, he argued, assumes seamless scalability of alternatives, yet empirical data on 's average of around 30% underscores the need for overbuilding to match 's output, amplifying risks absent nuclear or gas backups. Conway's analyses link material constraints to energy transition feasibility, emphasizing that assumptions of resource abundance overlook causal bottlenecks in scaling low-carbon technologies. For instance, construction demands vast quantities of and specialized alloys, while proliferation requires rare earths and whose supply chains face decade-long lead times and geopolitical vulnerabilities. He contends that without addressing these empirically grounded shortages—exacerbated by renewables' lower capacity factors compared to nuclear's 90%+ reliability—aggressive phase-outs risk energy insecurity rather than sustainability, as demonstrated by the UK's post-coal reliance on imported gas spikes during 2022-2023 shortages. This perspective prioritizes dispatchable nuclear expansion to mitigate intermittency, aligning with first-mover advantages Britain once held but has since underutilized.

Materials Science and Supply Chains

In Material World (2023), Ed Conway dissects the supply chains of foundational materials like sand, copper, and lithium, underscoring their non-infinite scalability despite technological optimism. He traces sand's transformation into silicon for semiconductors, noting that ultra-pure quartz—essential for crucibles in chip production—is sourced almost exclusively from mines in , rendering the global electronics industry vulnerable to localized disruptions such as hurricanes or operational halts. This single-source dependency exemplifies broader chokepoints, where refining quartz into polysilicon involves dozens of obscured, energy-intensive steps prone to failure. Conway extends this scrutiny to copper, describing it as "civilization's nervous system" for its unmatched electrical conductivity in wiring and . Global copper mining output, while historically expanding from under 1 million tons annually in the early to over 20 million tons by , faces accelerating constraints as ore grades decline and new deposits prove harder to develop, exacerbating shortages amid rising industrial demands. Similarly, lithium extraction—primarily from in arid regions like South America's ""—is hampered by slow evaporation processes and , with Conway documenting visits to facilities where yields remain geographically concentrated and environmentally taxing, limiting rapid scaling. Addressing rare earth elements, Conway's 2025 analysis highlights acute vulnerabilities outside his core six materials, with dominating 70% of and 91% of magnet production, enabling potential weaponization through export licensing amid trade tensions. Refining these elements demands up to 100 sequential processes, deterring Western investment due to costs and , thus perpetuating reliance on opaque chains. While Conway acknowledges innovations—potentially aided by computational tools for substitution—he maintains that such advances merely map and marginally alleviate, rather than erase, geopolitical frictions and physical extraction limits.

Economic Policy and Global Events

Conway has scrutinized the independence of the Bank of England, particularly in light of Reform UK's challenges to its monetary policies. In September 2025, he analyzed Reform UK leaders Nigel Farage and Richard Tice's meeting with Bank Governor Andrew Bailey, arguing that their scrutiny of the Bank's radical experiments—such as the partial reversal of quantitative tightening to avoid market turmoil—was justified, as the Bank had rowed back on unwinding historic fiscal support measures introduced during the COVID-19 crisis. This intervention preserved stability but raised questions about the Bank's commitment to pre-announced policy normalization, with Conway highlighting data showing bond yields spiking before the reversal on September 2025. In his coverage of international forecasts, Conway examined the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook released on October 14, 2025, noting its pessimistic implications for the amid global risks. The report projected growth at 1.6% for 2025, positioning it as the second-fastest in the , yet flagged persistent at 2.5%—higher than peers—and vulnerabilities from trade disruptions. Conway emphasized four themes: slowed global growth to 2.8%, US forecast cuts due to tariffs, elevated price pressures from energy and wages, and downside risks from geopolitical tensions, urging data-driven caution over optimism. Conway has addressed global trade dynamics, including China's economic challenges and their macroeconomic ripple effects. He has pointed to indicators of deceleration, such as slowing export growth and property sector woes, framing these as stutters in the post-2008 model reliant on investment-led expansion, with interventions like rate cuts in failing to fully offset structural imbalances. More recently, in analyzing US-China frictions, Conway warned that escalating tariffs—potentially reaching a 48% effective rate on key imports—could trigger a tipping point, historical data from 1930s Smoot-Hawley showing retaliatory spirals reducing global trade volumes by up to 25%. On inflation and trade wars, Conway's assessments prioritize empirical outcomes over policy intent. He explained that Donald Trump's 2025 tariff hikes, targeting 10-20% on broad imports and 60% on Chinese goods, risk importing inflation via higher input costs, with models estimating a 0.5-1% US CPI uplift absent offsets. Long-term, he cited evidence from prior episodes that such barriers impoverish participants by distorting supply chains, as seen in 2018-2019 when US-China tariffs added $80 billion in annual costs without net job gains in protected sectors. Conway also tracked economic policy uncertainty indices, which spiked to 200-point levels in early 2025 amid tariff announcements, correlating with 0.3% GDP drags per standard deviation increase based on cross-country data.

Reception and Impact

Achievements and Recognition

Conway was awarded the Wincott Foundation Financial Journalist of the Year in 2018, alongside Sir Richard Lambert, for producing high-caliber economic journalism that elucidates intricate financial dynamics for broad audiences. During his tenure at and , he broke multiple exclusives on pivotal economic events, notably a series of reports detailing the 2008 banking and , which advanced public comprehension of economic data and systemic risks. His 2023 publication Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization became a commercial success, attaining Sunday Times bestseller status, and garnered widespread critical recognition, including designation as an Economist Best Book of the Year, Times Science Book of the Year, New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, and shortlistings for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year as well as the British Academy Book Prize. These accolades underscore the book's empirical examination of material supply chains' causal role in economic structures. Conway's influence extends through keynote addresses and media engagements on resource economics and global supply chains, including appearances on podcasts such as Cleaning Up and events like the Sustainable Development Impact Summit, where his analyses reach professional and public audiences seeking data-driven insights into material dependencies.

Criticisms and Debates

Conway's analysis in The Summit of Soviet influence at the 1944 , particularly through U.S. official Harry Dexter White's documented activities, has fueled scholarly and er debates on its material effects. Declassified evidence, including decrypts released by 1997, substantiates White's transmission of conference details to Soviet handlers, enabling parallel Soviet negotiations. However, some accounts emphasize that the IMF's voting structure—weighted by economic size—and the World Bank's focus on reconstruction favored Western allies, mitigating any purported Soviet gains despite White's role. Heterodox economists have challenged Conway's portrayals of monetary mechanics and banking, accusing them of adhering to mainstream doctrines they consider fundamentally erroneous. In a review tied to his Bretton Woods work, analysts from the Prime Economics group contended that Conway's framework for reflects "perverse teachings of professional economists," overlooking banks' capacity to generate credit endogenously via loans rather than merely intermediating pre-existing deposits. This critique aligns with broader pushes for , such as , which Conway's data-driven defenses—drawing on historical operations—implicitly counter by prioritizing empirical records of reserve requirements and dynamics. Conway's advocacy for nuclear energy within the , coupled with Material World's focus on raw material bottlenecks for renewables like and , has intersected with left-leaning environmental critiques prioritizing swift deployment of intermittent sources over nuclear's extended build times and upfront costs. Proponents of accelerated decarbonization argue that such supply realism risks diluting political momentum for emissions cuts, though direct attributions to Conway remain anecdotal amid general opposition to nuclear from groups citing waste storage and proliferation risks.

References

  1. https://news.sky.com/author/ed-conway-495
  2. https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/287566/ed-conway
  3. https://www.edmundconway.com/books/
  4. https://www.ukwhoswho.com/documentId/ww-9780199540884-e-256157
  5. https://niesr.ac.uk/event/governor-talk-ed-conway
  6. https://jonathan-conway.com/authors/ed-conway
  7. https://www.edmundconway.com/my-year-at-harvard/
  8. https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/sky-news-appoints-ed-conway-as-first-economics-editor/
  9. https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Ed-Conway/172160609
  10. https://www.bookreporter.com/authors/ed-conway
  11. https://cps.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/111028104150-ruthbudget2006.pdf
  12. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2931889/Web-Exclusives.html
  13. https://centralbylines.co.uk/author/ed-conway/
  14. https://news.sky.com/story/inside-data-centre-alley-the-biggest-story-in-economics-right-now-13453966
  15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNCYLKumin8
  16. https://news.sky.com/story/four-big-themes-as-imf-takes-aim-at-uk-growth-and-inflation-13450072
  17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QyGGht_lv8
  18. https://www.amazon.com/50-Economics-Ideas-ideas/dp/1848660103
  19. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6496942-50-economics-ideas-you-really-need-to-know
  20. https://www.edmundconway.com/new-edition-50-economics-ideas/
  21. https://www.amazon.com/Summit-Bretton-Keynes-Reshaping-Economy/dp/1605989657
  22. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Summit/Ed-Conway/9781605989655
  23. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/books/review/the-summit-by-ed-conway.html
  24. https://www.historynet.com/book-review-the-summit-bretton-woods-1944-by-ed-conway/
  25. https://www.edmundconway.com/thesummit/
  26. https://archive.org/details/summitbiggestbat0000conw
  27. https://www.amazon.com/Material-World-Materials-Modern-Civilization/dp/0593534344
  28. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/703268/material-world-by-ed-conway/
  29. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/125937631-material-world
  30. https://ig.ft.com/sites/business-book-award/books/2023/shortlist/material-world-by-ed-conway/
  31. https://edconway.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-material-world
  32. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/material-world-six-raw-materials-shape-modern-civilization
  33. https://www.thetimes.com/profile/ed-conway
  34. https://www.edmundconway.com/tag/economics/
  35. https://edconway.substack.com/
  36. https://edconway.substack.com/p/america-still-needs-canadian-oil
  37. https://edconway.substack.com/p/salt-power
  38. https://www.businessinsider.com/author/ed-conway
  39. https://www.edmundconway.com/
  40. https://www.edmundconway.com/page/2/
  41. https://edconway.substack.com/p/how-not-to-use-your-time-as-an-energy
  42. https://x.com/EdConwaySky/status/1812912538004414922
  43. https://x.com/EdConwaySky/status/1887416788863881469
  44. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/opinion/england-coal-wind-power.html
  45. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-06-25/ed-conway-s-material-world-revels-in-sand-semiconductors-lithium-and-batteries
  46. https://edconway.substack.com/p/the-race-for-copper-hots-up
  47. https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2024/09/30/material-world-gripping-tale-six-natural-resources
  48. https://edconway.substack.com/p/the-rare-earths-crisis-and-what-it
  49. https://www.renewablematter.eu/en/map-of-the-material-world-interview-with-ed-conway
  50. https://news.sky.com/story/farage-and-tice-right-to-scrutinise-one-of-bank-of-englands-most-radical-monetary-experiments-in-history-13437894
  51. https://news.sky.com/video/ed-conway-analysis-is-reform-launching-an-assault-on-the-bank-of-englands-independence-13438036
  52. https://news.sky.com/video/four-big-themes-as-imf-takes-aim-at-uk-growth-and-inflation-13450164
  53. https://news.sky.com/video/imf-uk-forecast-to-be-second-fastest-growing-economy-in-the-g7-13450112
  54. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/ed-conway-explains-behind-chinas-112503508.html
  55. https://news.sky.com/story/trump-trade-war-why-a-figure-of-48-is-important-as-escalation-nears-13339445
  56. https://news.sky.com/story/donald-trumps-tariffs-whats-going-on-and-what-does-it-all-mean-13302262
  57. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbi6Mdp9rQo
  58. https://news.sky.com/video/why-does-economic-policy-uncertainty-matter-13385937
  59. https://wincott.co.uk/the-wincott-awards-for-2018/
  60. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/british-academy-book-prize/2024/material-world/
  61. https://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/ed-conway/
  62. https://www.cleaningup.live/material-world-ep149-ed-conway/
  63. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/books/review/letters-the-age-of-acquiescence.html
  64. https://primeeconomics.org/articles/twenty-two-days-that-changed-the-world-2/
  65. https://news.sky.com/story/a-new-climate-a-green-industrial-revolution-11746432
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