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Can You Run the Economy?
  • Published: 18 September 2025
  • ISBN: 9781529960723
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

Can You Run the Economy?

An interactive adventure inside the Treasury

  • Joe Mayes
Formats & editions
EBook
18 Sept 2025
Hardback
18 Oct 2025
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Do you have what it takes to be the Chancellor of the Exchequer?

AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 TODAY

Do you have what it takes to be the Chancellor? Find out in this interactive adventure where YOU are in charge, from award-winning political reporter Joe Mayes.

\"This clever, witty book is so much fun to play with. I loved it, right up to the moment that I was stabbed in the back by the Prime Minister.\" – TIM HARFORD, bestselling author of The Undercover Economist
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Congratulations!

You’ve just become the Chancellor of the Exchequer – one of the most powerful people in Britain.

The Budget is fast approaching. And as you turn each page, you’ll face dilemmas and tough choices of every kind, including bailing out big business, negotiating with trade unions and managing the media fallout from your Budget choices.

Will you overspend and trigger an economic crisis, or tighten the purse strings too much and crater your party’s approval ratings? Or will you play your cards just right enough to lead your party to victory at the next general election? It’s all up to you.

Are you ready?
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\"A political and economic handbook for our age\" - MISHAL HUSAIN

\"A must-read for armchair Chancellors\" - JEREMY HUNT

\"A fabulous choose-your-own adventure\" - KITTY DONALDSON

\"Engaging, and highly readable\" - NORMAN LAMONT
  • Published: 18 September 2025
  • ISBN: 9781529960723
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352
Categories:

Praise for Can You Run the Economy?

If you ever thought it was easy being Chancellor this book will put you right. An eye-opening journey through the trade-offs of the Treasury and the fickleness of public opinion.

Ben Riley-Smith, political editor of the Daily Telegraph and author of ‘Blue Murder’

A fabulous choose-your-own adventure for anyone who wants to understand the pay-offs between economics and politics. An extremely entertaining must-read.

Kitty Donaldson, Chief Political Commentator at The i Paper

Clever and original, this will be of real use to anyone interested in high office, as well as to the rest of us. Written with the insight of a dedicated reporter, it is also accessible and user-friendly. A political and economic handbook for our age.

Mishal Husain, Editor at Large for Bloomberg Weekend

A must-read for armchair Chancellors.

Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 2022-4

Hugely entertaining – Joe Mayes achieves the seemingly impossible feat of making fiscal policy fun. Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding just what a nightmare it must be to serve as Chancellor.

Tim Ross, author of 'Landslide', 'Betting the House' and 'Why the Tories Won'

I absolutely devoured Can You Run the Economy?... a much more enjoyable way to spend an afternoon than despairing over the UK’s sclerotic growth figures.'

Rachel Cunliffe, Associate Political Editor of the New Statesman

Joe Mayes has written a very readable book for the general reader identifying the trade-offs in the myriad of decisions any Chancellor has to make. The reader is invited to try his or her hand at making those choices, usually choices between the impossible and the unbelievable.

Norman Lamont, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1990–3

This clever, witty book is so much fun to play with. I loved it, right up to the moment that I was stabbed in the back by the Prime Minister.

Tim Harford, bestselling author of 'The Undercover Economist'

To write something so fun and accessible about the inner workings of the Treasury is no mean feat. It couldn't be more timely.

Adam Payne, Editor of PoliticsHome